An Unreaped Nindo
by TheAmateurAJ
Summary: A new world, new friends, new enemies; all things Uzumaki Naruto wasn't expecting to be thrown into his life when he finally defeated the biggest enemy of the shinobi world. Now with a new chapter in his life beginning, Naruto will once again have to fight to protect himself and anything deemed worth protecting, whether it be a single person or the entirety of the world.
1. Facing a New Darkness

**AN: Well, I never expected myself to make a second story out of nowhere, but this was just a spur of the moment kind of thing. I recently got into the Bleach manga and this popped into my head, so I figured why not? Let's see where this goes, shall we? Enjoy.**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach.**

* * *

 **Chapter 1: Facing a New Darkness**

(Unknown Location)

Tranquility. That's all he could really think of at the forefront of his mind.

His body, normally riddled with the signs of battle, felt weightless and unscathed. His mind, usually bombarded with a continuous stream of spontaneous emotions and an unhealthy amount of paranoia, was stilled. His five senses, frequently worked overload for the sake of survival, remained undisturbed.

He honestly couldn't remember a time he ever felt like this.

Sure, he's had moments in his life that he truly held dear to his heart; acquiring his spot as a protector of his village in the form of a headband from someone he knew actually cared about him and his success, experiencing what it meant to be truly strong and proving that strength to all those that doubted his ability as a fighter and even as a human being, earning the respect of his peers and fellow villagers no matter the effort or length of time, having people he could truly call his friends and family, and even being blessed with a chance to briefly meet his mother and father despite his lifelong status as an orphan.

All of those instances in his past were filled with or lead down to moments of pure happiness and accomplishment that will never be taken for granted. They were among the greatest parts in his journey that made him into the man that his friends and comrades, especially himself, were proud of. He wouldn't trade those experiences for all of the ramen in the world…maybe.

And yet he couldn't compare anything he's been a part of to what he was currently feeling. It was practically being unaware of everything his body was conditionally accustomed to without the need of being unconscious for whatever reason. In what little cognitive thought he could rouse up he was able to grasp the sensation of being in a somewhat deep meditative state with the clear attentiveness of knowing he wasn't asleep. If anything he could compare it to being half asleep, knowing of your own continuous slumber while being mindful to some of the happenings around yourself, albeit slightly jumbled depending on your own mental position.

Yeah, this was something like that, just on a whole other level.

It was peaceful, and he didn't want to leave. Seconds, hours, hell, even years could've gone by and there probably wouldn't be any difference. The perception of time just didn't register to him and he simply didn't care. Honestly, just what was making him feel like this?

It wasn't clear to him, but his mind was merely at ease and he felt it was because of something else, like a huge weight was suddenly lifted off of his shoulders, relieving him of all the troubles that could've been accumulated over the course of recent years. It's as if a conclusiveness of sorts with the greatest of importance just disappeared, leaving him without any more worry.

Shit, he wasn't dead, was he? If so, was this heaven? It certainly didn't feel like hell, so then what else? An endless void? Purgatory perhaps?

He might've not been the most model citizen sometimes, but he certainly wore his heart on his sleeve when it mattered, so he at least earned relief from being among those that were truly evil, right?

If not, well…that just sucks then…

Despite the inner protest of escaping the smooth and relaxed state of mind he was experiencing, he managed to find the willpower to make his eyelids a tad ajar. At first there was blurriness, not surprising in the least, but after an effort to blink a couple of times whatever was in his line of sight became clearer.

What was presented before his drowsy sapphire eyes was an endless sea of fiery orange straight ahead of him that reached every little bit of his peripheral.

Well, shit…his hopes of not spending an eternity in flames were dimming by the second…

Oh wait, there were some clouds trickled around in random spots as well.

Thank Kami, it was just a sunset, and a beautiful one at that. The familiar colors of a dimming day took him back to all the times he would sit calmly on the heads of the Hokages on their respective monument to witness the traces of sunlight hug the village as if it was all enraptured in a tamed and mythical fire.

Definitely befitting of their country's namesake.

Well, so far so good in what he's seen in his first few seconds of responsiveness and- oh look a bird! It looked to be enjoying its time as well, simply gliding in the breeze and embracing the freedom it was gifted to experience in the wide open skies. The wind was something it coexisted with and commanded in its own way and- wait, now he was feeling the wind too, extremely so as its sharp gusts raced around his body from below him.

Wait, below? And why was the bird quickly getting farther and farther away without even facing away from him?

Oh…

"Son of a-" He barely managed to utter as alarms loudly responded in his mind before he felt an immense force of impact explode on his back. With the pain quickly registering and breath being forced out of his lungs he could do nothing as his body continued its path of carnage. Arms, legs, torso, head, nothing escaped harm as every part of him smashed and broke pieces of whatever he landed on, and from the cracks that loudly sounded out he could tell it was the oh so familiar cries of cracking wood.

Well, wasn't that lovely? He went from a peacefully drifting mind to launching into a tree and hitting what felt like every. Damn. Branch.

Welp, there goes that misperception of time, because even in the heat of the moment he could tell that by the time he cleared the last branch only a second, maybe two, had passed since the impact.

Not like that even mattered to him, since he knew that by reaching the bottom of the branches there was-

 _THUD_

-The ground.

Oh, and did he hit cement? That was unexpected, but why not at this point? At least he broke the fall with his head, so there's that.

"F-fuck…" He rasped out with difficulty as he lay face down, the cold and dirty cement being his temporary resting spot.

The entirety of his body ached. Every little movement he tried to make, even trying to move a finger or two, ignited a severe soreness that discouraged any further activity. However, despite what his body wanted to do he knew he had to figure out just what the hell was going on, even with the pain, exhaustion, and harshly dazed mind that was becoming more apparent as the seconds ticked on by.

With what seemed like a great deal of effort in the moment, he slowly managed to lift his head with one eye barely cracked open.

To his surprise a pair of small feet covered by black buckled shoes was the first thing he saw. From the small pink flower covering the end of each buckle he figured the owner was a young girl, of which was confirmed when he looked up a little bit more and saw the bottom of what seemed like a casual dress.

 _'Wow, I must be really out of it if I couldn't even tell she was there.'_ He thought.

"Yo-you wouldn't happen to have a bandage or two, would ya?" He quietly asked with as much light-heartedness he could. He didn't want to scare her after all. If the pain throughout his frame and the blood he felt quickly drip off of his chin onto the ground was anything to go by, he probably looked like all kinds of hell, and that would probably frighten any normal kid away.

He heard a feminine gasp as a response and noticed she took a surprised step back.

"What's wrong?" He questioned.

"You…you can see me?" She whispered.

Well, that's a question that he didn't exactly expect.

"Why wouldn't I be able to?" He responded.

"Because-"

"What's going on now? First some stupid skateboarders, now w- the hell?" A new noticeably male voice interrupted.

"Hello again, mister." The girl greeted with a slightly more upbeat tone.

"What's going on?" The stranger asked.

She pointed down to the bloody and battered man next to her while shrugging and signaling she didn't know herself.

Footsteps quickly jogged along the pavement and drew closer to the pair.

The prone man was only really able to see that the person making his way over to him had on a pair of sneakers and gray pants.

"You look like hell." He said once he stopped in front of him and knelt down, still not low enough to see higher than his chest.

"Feel like it." The injured man retorted with some difficulty as he took that chance to spit out some blood that was building up in his mouth.

"Think you can stay alive a little longer?" The stranger asked as he started to lift him off of the ground while paying mind to injuries.

After letting out some grunts of pain as he was hoisted over the stranger's shoulders, the battered man said, "Got nothing else to do."

"Of course you don't. Just hold on, I'm taking you to get help."

"Sounds…good." The man barely muttered with a quickly fading consciousness. From his new position on his helper's shoulder he was able to see what looked like a book bag hanging on his side and noticed he was wearing a gray shirt as well.

Before he knew it the stranger was jogging away from what he now knew was an alley when he looked up. He also saw the tree on the other side of a short wall all battered to hell from his fallen path from the sky.

Right before his current transport rounded the corner he was able to see the young girl in all of her splendor and wasn't sure what to make of her appearance. She looked like any other normal girl with her dress and her brown hair put up in pigtails. What threw his mind for a loop was that the left side of her head was drenched in blood that looked to stream down and cover her left eye completely from view. The stranger thing, though, was the chain lazily hanging from the middle of her chest. Those things, along with her smiling innocently and waving in goodbye was just something that he couldn't mentally compute.

 _'W-what…?'_ Was his last lingering thought as the girl suddenly walked through the wall next to her before he finally blacked out.

* * *

(Karakura Town – Streets)

"Is that Kurosaki-kun?" A young lady with long and burnt orange hair asked as she looked on and saw who she thought was her classmate run down the sidewalk in a hurry. Running in the desperate manner that he was would've been enough to garner attention, but the bloodied blonde man he was carrying on his shoulder easily brought attention to himself from various onlookers.

"Looks like it. Seems like he's taking that guy to his family's clinic. I hope he makes it okay, he looks really messed up." The girl's companion with short black and spiky hair said while having a look of concern.

"What do you think happened, Tatsuki-chan?" The orange-haired girl asked, masking the same concern.

Tatsuki glanced to her best friend. "No clue. I didn't hear a car crash or anything, so maybe a fight? We can ask Ichigo tomorrow. Come on, Orihime, my mom's probably getting worried from how long we're taking." She said as she started walking towards her house once again.

Orihime nodded and matched her friend's pace while casting one more look in Ichigo's direction as he got out of sight.

 _'Hope you'll be okay.'_ She mentally wished for the injured stranger.

* * *

(Nighttime – Kurosaki Residence)

"Hang on, we're almost there." Ichigo whispered to his unconscious passenger.

Now quickly approaching his home/family clinic, he bypassed the locked conjoined medical building and went straight for the house's front door which should've been left unlocked.

With a rushed twist of the doorknob he went inside and had to quickly step out of the way of a flying kick aimed for his head.

"What the hell's your problem?!" Ichigo yelled to his assailant that flew through the open door.

"You're late!" A man's voice yelled out as its owner made his way back inside. "And you know damn well dinner is always at- huh?" The revealed black-haired man said as he looked at the person his son was carrying.

"Exactly, first I had to help a spirit and now I'm dealing with this guy! Help me out, will ya?!" Ichigo yelled.

Gone was the hyperactive dad, and in its place was the serious man who ran the clinic.

With a fierce nod, he ordered his son. "Get him onto a medical bed, I'll get things ready." His son nodded and hurried down the hallway before the head of the house turned and yelled towards the kitchen where his two wide-eyed daughters were sitting. "Karin, Yuzu, put dinner on hold! Someone needs help!"

* * *

 _It was all over…they had finally gotten the chance to end this hell once and for all, not just for them, but the entire world._

 _So much blood, sweat, and tears had to be shed to get to this point. Even a spec of less effort on this long and tired path could've led them to failure long ago. Every step and sacrifice was needed to achieve this final victory._

 _And once they applied that final technique, monumental relief washed over him._

 _" **Chibaku Tensei!"**_

 _And that was it. That was all it should've been._

 _However, things were just never simple for him._

 _Maybe it was a final gambit for her to pull out a desperate victory._

 _Maybe they didn't perform the technique right._

 _Maybe there was an unknown outside factor that interfered._

 _Maybe there was just a need for one final sacrifice._

 _Or maybe shit just happens._

 _"What's happening?!"_

 _"It's deteriorating too fast!"_

 _"A bunch are opening up!"_

 _"Hurry and get them!"_

 _"Kurama!"_

 _"He's caught!"_

 _"No!"_

 _"Naruto!"_

 _"Naruto!"_

 _"Naru-"_

* * *

(Nighttime – Kurosaki Clinic)

Naruto's eyes opened wide with a gasp as he lurched forward, something he instantly regretted as a jolt of pain shot throughout his torso.

Letting out of small grunt of discomfort he allowed the soreness take its time to subside as he calmed down enough to gauge the situation. After blinking a few times the blurriness in his blue orbs cleared, and the first thing he noticed was the medical equipment such as rolls of gauze, syringes, and other medical crap he's dreaded seeing every time he was forced to be in a hospital.

Crap, he was in a hospital.

The second was the curtains on either side of his bed, currently not pulled out, usually allowing at least some bit of privacy for multiple patients in the same room when they were. That gave him an open viewing of the rest of the room. It looked to be able to handle a few patients at once if need be, and was filled with other kinds of gadgets he really didn't care if he knew or not.

The last thing he noticed right away was the full moon bestowing its lunar glow through the window next to his bed. Normally this would be a beautiful view he could take a moment to look at, but instead he was suddenly reminded of the pale eyes that he just fought with the world on the line.

"…What happened? Did we win?" He whispered to himself, unblinkingly gazing upon the shining moon.

 _ **"** **Damn right we did."**_ A familiar and deep voice resonated within his mind.

Sucking in a quick breath in surprise, Naruto responded. _"Kurama?"_

 _ **"** **Who else?"**_

 _"Shut up."_ He allowed a small grin to crack at the corner of his mouth and closed his eyes. _"So…we actually won?"_

 _ **"** **I just said that, didn't I? Yeah…we got the bitch, and that damn plant freak Zetsu too."**_ The fox seemed tiredly relieved. It was glad it was over too.

Naruto lightly chuckled humorlessly as he brought up a bandaged hand to rest his head on as he slouched forward.

 _"After everything we've done, it just seems so hard to believe…just…holy shit."_

 _ **"** **You're not going to cry, are you?"**_

 _"Hell no…are you?"_

 _ **"** **I'm an ancient mass of sentient chakra, I don't cry."**_

 _"So says the old furball…for now."_

 _ **"** **A furball that can kick your ass, you damn fishcake."**_

Naruto couldn't help but chuckle a little louder. He really missed just talking without having to worry about fighting. _"And who was the one that kicked the other's ass to attain control of its chakra?"_

 _ **"** **Shut up."**_

Naruto laughed some more in the quiet and darkened room. Once he calmed down he brought his attention back to the moon and schooled his whiskered face a bit.

 _"What happened, Kurama? And where are we? All I remember is doing the sealing process for Kaguya and then it gets all hazy."_

 _ **"** **For the second question, I have no idea, while the first is more complicated."**_

 _"Shoot then, there's nothing else to do."_

 _ **"** **Fine. You and the Uchiha were successful with the Chibaku Tensei and sealed away those two, so don't worry about that. After doing that is when it gets complicated."**_

 _"Go on."_

 _ **"** **Both you and the other brat just fell, like you were both completely spent. Then with Kaguya's power cut off, her core dimension started to fall apart, and way too quickly at that."**_

 _"Wait, if I was out of it, wouldn't that mean you would've been cut off from seeing clearly too?"_

He could practically feel the fox smirk. _**"Not my yang half."**_

 _"You got both again?!"_

 _ **"** **Yes, and that's what happened next. No one really knew what was going on or what to do with everything crumbling down and pathways opening up, but we had to get you both first. Cyclops was already getting duck-ass so I went to grab you. The moment I came into contact with your body I was, in a word, absorbed."**_

 _"Alright, I get the sealing, but not the actual reason on why it happened like that. And pathways? W-what do you mean?"_

 _ **"** **I didn't pay much attention since I was hurrying to get you, but with Kaguya's power acting unstable as she was being sealed, more doors were opening all around from what I could see. Like I said, though, my yang was sealed and joined my yin, not sure why, and I only woke up at the same time as you did a moment ago."**_

Naruto's breath was suddenly increasing as his mind was increasingly becoming more sporadic. _"But…but what about the others?! What about us?! Are they okay?! Are we stuck wherever we are?! What the hell are we going to do?! What-"_

 _ **"** **Naruto!"**_ Kurama shouted, successfully silencing his partner.

 _ **"** **Look, I don't know what to tell you. I was taken out of the picture just after you were. It's not hard to believe that maybe we fell into one of those newly opened doorways and got here, wherever it is. It might be hard to grasp, but you have to think clearly."**_

 _"_ … _How can you be so calm about this? My friends could be in trouble…I might never see them again…"_

The fox sighed. It never liked these emotional kind of situations. _**"I'm calm because one way or another, I've resigned myself to be sealed within you. I don't exactly have any outside connections besides my siblings that I've barely had contact with over many years until recently. I know that we're all free and happy now in our own ways now that the big mess is over, so that's fine with me. Wherever you go, I go."**_

 _"What about everyone else?"_ Naruto shakily responded.

 _ **"** **Do you believe they're safe?"**_

 _"What?"_

 _ **"** **Do you believe that they got out of there safely? If I can believe that my siblings did, can you believe that your friends successfully got out of the situation?"**_

 _"But if it's like you said, then how could they have-"_

 _ **"** **Do you honestly believe that after everything that's happened, they would let themselves fall like that?!"**_

Naruto became quiet again. Did he really have so little faith? Sure, the situation seemed real dire, but they were capable of taking care of themselves, right? Of course they were, but he really couldn't help but worry. They were some of the people he cared most about in his life.

 _ **"Well?"**_

 _"I think they could- I mean, I know that they got out of there. No stupid dimensional crap could've stopped them!"_ He responded with more resolve.

 _ **"** **Good. And remember that you're all shinobi, and shinobi are putting their lives on the line the moment they take their headband. Even if they didn't get out, then what better way than going down saving the world?"**_

 _"_ … _Yeah…"_ Naruto really didn't know what to say anymore. There was always the risk of death, he knew that, but he didn't really care about his own life as long as his friends were safe, something they could've felt too with him. How they could've escaped, he doesn't know, but the Elemental Nations were safe now, and that was the ultimate goal, wasn't it?

His own wishes might've been selfish of everything ending fine, but he deserved a happy ending, didn't he? Of course he did, but he went into this battle knowing he might not come out at all and he had to be able to suck it up no matter the conclusion. They didn't fail, but he felt he didn't completely succeed either, so to him it was bittersweet. The rest of his world was safe, but what about those of team 7? All he could do now was have faith in their abilities. He could care less about himself, as long as they got out and joined up with everyone else.

But just the thought of realizing he might never see any of his friends again was…just…

"Damn it!" He shouted as he slammed a fist on the metal frame on the side of the bed, ignoring whatever pain came to him as the impact echoed throughout the room.

His breath was becoming shaky again, his now clenched fists were twitching, and his lips trembled. He wasn't going to cry! Crying wouldn't help anything! What would his friends say if they saw him about to break down?! How would they react to the tear that was already rolling down his cheek and- wait, damn it!

"Are you okay?" A soft voice spoke from his left, towards the direction where he saw the door earlier.

Turning his head he saw a small figure in the shadows of the room before a flick of a switch turned the lights on. Taking the opportunity of adjusting to the light, he wiped whatever tears were building up.

Once he stealthily wiped the moisture off of his face, Naruto got a proper look of who entered. He noticed it was a small girl, probably ten or eleven years of age. She had short light brown hair with a red hair clip on the left side of her head, brown eyes, wore a yellow hooded sweatshirt, a blue skirt that reached just above her knees, and calf-length white socks.

"Huh?" He responded.

"Wait right here." She said before scampering off with hurried footsteps.

With a little time to himself he finally realized the state of his own clothing. Just by looking down at his chest and arms he knew he was covered by a lot of bandages. This was confirmed even more so when he lifted the light blanket off of his lower half and saw even more gauze around his boxer-clad form. In little random spots blotches of blood were able to soak through a bit, but it seemed that the worst of whatever injuries he sustained were all fine and dandy now if he still had his quick healing to take into account. To his best knowledge he was probably only dealing with soreness and quickly fading scars; he's definitely been hurt enough to estimate his own recovery time.

Before he knew it multiple footsteps were easily heard as they approached the barely opened door to his left and in came the girl along with a middle-aged man with spiky black hair and thin facial hair around his mouth. He was wearing a white lab coat over a yellow collared shirt, dark gray pants, and dark brown shoes.

"So you're awake? That was faster than expected with how you looked." The man said.

"Um…yeah." Naruto retorted still somewhat trying to get his emotions in order. "I've kinda always healed fast."

The man crossed his arms and gained a wide grin. "Well, aren't you a lucky one?" He said and walked towards Naruto's bedside with a clipboard in hand, his daughter following. "Now then, since we have a chance, we can finally get some info. We couldn't find any identification on you, just your clothes, of which are no longer usable."

"Great…" Naruto muttered.

"Don't worry, we can take care of that later. Anyway, my name is Kurosaki Isshin and this is my daughter, Yuzu. This is my clinic and my son brought you in not too long ago. You were pretty banged up when we treated you; exhaustion, multiple bruises, deep cuts and a gash just below your hairline, a few fractures in your right arm and leg, and a concussion among some other minor things." Isshin said while looking at his clipboard.

Naruto looked at him for a second before shrugging. "Not too bad, I've had worse."

Yuzu looked a little wide-eyed at this while Isshin said, "Not really surprised, what with that nasty scar that was already on your chest."

Naruto touched his bandaged chest before getting a little anxious as he repeatedly tapped around his neck for something missing.

Isshin noticed. "Calm down, your necklace survived. It's with your ripped clothes on the counter over there." He gestured over his shoulder next to the door.

Naruto looked to the ruined pile of black and orange cloth and indeed saw the Shodai's familiar green gem still safely attached to its black cord that was given to him by his baa-chan as it lay on his headband. He sighed in relief and nodded to Isshin in thanks.

"Important?" The father asked.

"Very. Someone very close entrusted it to me."

Isshin nodded before continuing. "Moving on, it doesn't seem you'll have to go anywhere else for treatment since you don't require surgery, so that's good." Naruto nodded. "Now can I have your name and age?"

"Oh, right, sorry." Naruto said. "It's Uzumaki Naruto, sixteen."

Isshin held out a hand. "Then it's nice to meet you, Naruto." He said with a grin.

Naruto managed to crack a small one of his own before he briefly shook the doctor's hand.

"So, Naruto, do you have anyone we can contact and get everything taken care of?" Isshin asked as he prepared to write any information down.

Well, he was completely shit out of luck in that regard. Even without being told outright by Kurama, he could easily tell this wasn't his home, not even the same country. It just didn't have the same presence, and besides, if he was in any of the shinobi countries then they could've easily been able to tell who to contact just by looking at his headband; his growing reputation didn't hurt either.

Gearing himself up mentally, Naruto simply said, "No."

Isshin and Yuzu blinked at him. "Um, any friends?"

"No."

"Parents?"

"Orphan."

"Other relatives?"

"None."

"School?"

"Not enrolled."

"Employer?"

"Nope."

Isshin disregarded writing anything down and looked to his blonde patient. "Didn't you say someone gave you that necklace, or is that person gone now?" He asked apologetically.

Naruto sighed and laid back down onto his bed, looking at the marks on the white ceiling in an emotionless gaze. "She's gone…they're gone…everyone's gone." Naruto side-glanced at an increasingly worried Isshin and even more distraught Yuzu. "I'll just save you the trouble by saying it's just me alone and there is no one I know around here. I don't even know what _here_ is. There's no records you can find on me anywhere as far as I know since I have absolutely no form of documentation. Hell, I don't even know how this treatment's getting paid for."

"Don't worry about the money, it's more important that we need to help figure out just what to do with you. This is much more complicated than I thought." Isshin looked to think a little to himself. "Excuse us for a bit." He said as he headed towards the door, gesturing for Yuzu to follow. Before turning around to follow him, though, she sent him an encouraging smile before leaving with her father.

He smiled back and watched them go, leaving him back to his thoughts as he stared at the ceiling.

 _ **"What do you plan on doing now?"**_

 _"No idea."_

 _ **"Going to just up and leave this place? Maybe forage for acorns in a park and live amongst the squirrels as one of their own?"**_

 _"That is the stupidest thing you've said in a while."_

 _ **"** **Just throwing ideas out there, not like it matters what you do, as long as you don't die on me."**_

 _"Your compassion melts my heart."_ Naruto rolled his eyes.

 _ **"** **Better than melting your face like I used to want to do."**_

 _"That's one hell of a silver lining."_

 _ **"** **You have to be positive about stupid things sometimes, mister homeless."**_

Naruto gained a blank look. _"Dick."_

Suddenly Naruto started hearing muffled yelling from somewhere in the house. Weirdly enough it wasn't angry, just loud, and passionate? It sounded like Isshin and who he assumed was Yuzu, but a couple of other voices joined in every now and then. Naruto didn't know what to make of it, so he just decided to wait it out, at least until he figured out where to go from here.

Eventually the door was opened again, allowing Isshin and Yuzu in, but in came two new people along with them. One was another little girl looking to be the same age as Yuzu, this one with short black hair wearing a sports jersey of sorts and black shorts. The other person next to her was a young man with bright orange hair, a blue t-shirt, and gray pants. Both wore faces of what looked like natural disinterest, maybe even borderline frowns.

Naruto looked right at Ichigo from his now sitting position, who met his stare. "You the one that carried me here?"

The orange-haired teenager nodded which got the blonde to stick his hand out. "Thanks. Name's Uzumaki Naruto."

Ichigo reacted in kind and gave a light shake. "No problem, and mine's Ichigo. This is my sister, Karin." He said pointing down to the girl who gave Naruto a half-hearted wave in greeting, something he did back in kind.

"By the way, Ichigo," Naruto started, gaining the young man's attention, "Did you get help for that girl too?"

Ichigo raised an eyebrow. "What girl?"

"The one you found me with. The one in the alley. She was bleeding and had a damn chain sticking out of her chest." Naruto said with a light narrowing of his eyes. This guy better have gotten that girl some help too, he at least had good health regeneration and would've been better eventually.

Ichigo's eyes showed clear shock. "You were able to see her?"

Now it Naruto's turn to raise a brow. "Well, duh. She was standing right there in broad daylight right before…she…walked through a wall…" He trailed off, now just staring at nothing as he tried to process his memory.

"You can see spirits like onii-chan?!" Yuzu semi shouted excitedly with a glimmer in her eye, eliciting interest in her sister and father.

Naruto snapped back into it and looked at the brown-haired girl. "Spirits? Wait, you mean ghosts?!" He shouted with a following chill down his spine.

Okay, when it came to him he could usually take anything on with no fear, but it was completely different when there is something that can haunt you and mess around and you couldn't hit it! That shit just isn't right!

Naruto's head snapped towards Ichigo. "You can see ghosts?!"

"You can too apparently, so don't get all crazy, calm down!" Ichigo responded.

"How?!" Naruto exclaimed.

"Breath exercises? I don't know!"

"No, I mean how I can see ghosts?!"

"I don't know! Maybe you were just born with it like me!"

"This has never happened before!"

"I don't know what to tell you! What, do you want me to say, 'welcome to hell'?!"

"Not th-" Naruto's response was cut off as he and Ichigo were both smacked on the back of the head by Isshin.

"Quiet!" He shouted.

Ichigo only held his head and sent an annoyed look to his father while Naruto was hunched over trying to ride out the pain without cursing out the doctor, there were two little girls present after all.

"Dad, he's still hurt!" Yuzu proclaimed while quickly checking over Naruto.

Isshin paused and looked at Naruto being doted on by his daughter. "Oh, right…oops?"

It was his turn to be hit as his Karin gave him a swift kick to the shin, making him hold it while hopping in pain. "Control yourself! These are the kind of things that can get you sued! Act your age!" She shouted.

A recovered Naruto watched this happen and was weirded out a bit by how Isshin suddenly switched emotions on a dime and was actually pouting down at his daughter.

What happened to the serious doctor?

"Never mind the ghosts or whatever, let's just get what we were meaning to do out of the way!" Ichigo exclaimed.

"What do you mean?" Naruto asked as he waved off Yuzu to signal he was fine.

Ichigo sighed and looked at his dad. "Tell him."

Isshin suddenly went serious again. "Before I say what was decided, I have to ask three things." He said to Naruto who nodded.

Isshin held up one finger. "One, where are you from?"

"Konohagakure, my home village." He said.

They all seemed confused. "Never heard of it." Ichigo said.

"Of course you haven't…" Naruto sighed.

"So a village? Seems pretty old-fashioned to me. Is it isolated?" Isshin inquired.

"From here? Yes, very, _very_ isolated and out of the way. Probably won't find it on a map."

 _ **"** **No shit."**_ Kurama muttered but went ignored.

The head of the house seemed to scrutinize him before gaining a wide smile. "Good enough for me!" He said earning a smile from Yuzu and pointed looks of disbelief from his other kids.

Two fingers were now held up. "Two, what happened to you?"

Oh boy, there was no way they would believe the real answer, and there was no way he was going to go all ninja just to prove a point. He had no idea where he was or if anything similar to ninjas were around, so he didn't want to do anything crazy and draw attention.

 _ **"** **Thinking ahead and with tact? Wow, you must've hit your head really hard."**_

 _"Shut up!"_ The blonde said before giving the others his attention again.

"Um…I fell."

 _ **"** **Okay…really,**_ **really,** _ **hard…"**_

Alright, maybe he should've gone with going all ninja, and judging by everyone's blank looks, the point was hammered down more so…even if he was technically telling the truth.

"You…fell?" Ichigo asked with obvious doubt.

"Yes?" Naruto lamely replied.

"And it wasn't because you were getting into some illegal trouble? Some business with the Yakuza? Any type of criminal activity at all?" Isshin questioned seriously.

"Um…no?" Naruto replied.

"That's what a criminal would say." Karin blandly said, ignoring Naruto's whiny 'hey.'

"Well, now there's doubt." Ichigo offhandedly stated.

"Oh, don't worry about that." Isshin said waving his son off as he looked towards Yuzu. "Go ahead, sweetie."

Firmly nodding, Yuzu turned towards Naruto who was looking at her curiously. Without a word she lifted up her small right pinky and looked at him as if she was swearing him into something.

"Is what happened to you criminally related, and are you a criminal or bad person?" She probed.

Naruto looked at her extended finger with even more hesitation, but answered anyway. "No."

"Promise?" She said noticeably looking back and forth between him and her pinky.

"Uh, yeah, I promise." He said taking her pinky in his own and grasping it lightly.

Nodding in satisfaction, Yuzu smiled at him before looking at her father in utmost seriousness. "He's clean." She said in a no nonsense tone with a salute, earning a pleased nod from Isshin.

 _'Seriously?'_ The shinobi thought.

 _ **"** **The justice system must be messed up here."**_

They weren't the only ones that thought it was ridiculous since in the next instant Ichigo and Karin face palmed at the same time.

Why couldn't their family be normal?

"Does that seriously pass?" Naruto muttered in disbelief.

"Yep, Yuzu's word is good enough! And if you're a good person, then whatever happened is your business!"

"Wait, wh-"

"Next and final question!" Isshin proclaimed to move along. Now holding three fingers and speaking in a deadly serious tone, he said, "Now I want you to be completely honest with me."

Naruto nodded and prepared himself.

"What's with the whiskers? Are they tattoos or something?" He asked.

Naruto only stared at him owlishly for a few very long and silent seconds. Noticing that even the others looked interested, he answered. "No, they're not tattoos, they're birthmarks."

"Really?!" Yuzu shouted with glistening eyes. "That's so cute! You're like a cat!"

Naruto merely squinted down at her and said, "I prefer fox." And as they all looked at his face, they could definitely see the resemblance.

"Huh, when you think you've seen it all," Isshin muttered before becoming excited again and yelled, "Final bonus question!"

"What?" The blonde responded.

"You were only going to get this one if you passed the first three. Now, I want you to think really hard about this." Naruto nodded. "Alright, do you want to stay here?"

Naruto looked at him incredulously. "Are you serious? Why?"

Isshin gained a gentle smile. "You look like you really need some support right now. I don't know what happened to you, but I can tell it was something big, and it looks like you need a new start."

Wow, he really seemed seriously genuine when he said that. Looks like he could be mature when it really mattered.

"And besides," He started as tears started building up in his eyes and his lips started quivering comically, "Masaki-chan would've given you a chance!"

And there goes the man-child…

"Masaki?" Naruto uttered.

"Our mom that passed away a few years ago." Ichigo answered him as he and Karin watched as their father and sister were having a sporadic episode of over exaggerated crying, and where the hell did those tissues come from?

"Oh, I'm sorry." Naruto quickly said apologetically.

"Don't sweat it. So, what's your answer?" Ichigo questioned with a side-glance.

"You're okay with this too?" Naruto asked him.

Ichigo shrugged. "It's not a big deal to me, as long as you don't cause trouble."

"Dad guilt tripped him by using saying 'this is what mom would've wanted.'" Karin told Naruto, earning a pointed look from her brother.

"I see…so that's what that yelling was about?"

"Yep, but most of it was dad begging for advice from a giant poster of our mom." Karin said with a roll of her eyes.

"Don't ask." Ichigo stated before Naruto could get a word.

"So, Naruto, what's your answer?!" A recovered Isshin shouted as he suddenly jumped back in front of the surprised blonde expectantly.

Looking around the room he saw them all waiting on him. Not really knowing what else to go on for the moment he said, "Sure, for now I guess."

"Then it's settled!" Isshin yelled excitedly. "Until Naruto here can get back onto his feet he'll stay with us as one of the family!"

"Yay!" Yuzu exclaimed.

"And he'll stay in Ichigo's room!" Isshin continued.

Ichigo's eyes widened. "Whoa, wait, you didn't-"

"It'll be great! He can even go to the same school!"

"Wait, school?! I didn't agree to that!" Naruto shouted in fright.

Isshin stopped mid celebration at looked at him expressionlessly. "What country are we in?"

"Uh…"

"Exactly! Your poorly isolated mind needs proper education!" The father yelled going back into whatever crazy mindset he was in. Unknown to him his words were making a certain fox start to laugh its ass off in a certain blonde's head.

"But how can I enroll if I don't even have identification?!" Ha! Now he couldn't be forced to go!

Isshin smirked suspiciously. "Not a problem, I know a guy."

Okay, who was the one that seemed to be a criminal?

"Now no more delay! You need to eat and get situated! Yuzu, help me get him some food!" He declared as he made his dramatic exit out of the medical room with Yuzu quickly in tow.

The three remaining people simply stared at the closed door in awkward silence.

"Well…your dad is certainly…something…" Naruto stated.

Both siblings sighed and muttered, "Yeah…"

"Y'know, he actually reminds me a little of someone." Naruto said as his face scrunched up in thought.

"Who?" Ichigo asked.

"You wouldn't know him, but now that I think about it he's like this guy named-"

-Maito Gai…and he was supposed to live with him?

Naruto's eyes widened with his pupils dilating dangerously fast. Without completing his sentence, Naruto went back to laying down and staring into space.

Ichigo and Karin didn't say anything, only watching to see if he would say something else.

"Ichigo?" Naruto abruptly and quietly called to the teen.

"Yeah?"

"How often is your dad…eccentric?"

Karin cut in. "Twenty-four seven." She said hollowly.

"Uh-huh…hey, Ichigo, Karin?"

"Hm?" They both sounded.

"Pull the plug…"

"Huh?"

"I've lived a good life…so go ahead…"

"It…doesn't work that way, Naruto."

"You sure?"

"Yeah."

"Oh."

Well, there goes that plan.

* * *

(Nighttime – Kurosaki Residence)

"Where are you going, Naruto?" Yuzu asked the blonde who was making his way to the front door, herself about to get ready for bed since they all got done eating an hour prior.

"Feel like taking a walk for a while. I won't be long." The shinobi responded, now dressed in black pants and a white t-shirt given to him to borrow from Ichigo. Thank goodness he had a bigger growth spurt than he thought he would have over the last couple of years, otherwise the clothes would've been a lot more awkward on his 5'9 frame. At least his black sandals remained unharmed, and now he had the Shodai's necklace once again hanging securely around his neck, along with his black headband tied just above it.

"But what about your injuries?"

"I'm fine, look." He removed the gauze wrapped around his head that miraculously showed only a small red mark where the huge gash was earlier.

"Wow…" Yuzu muttered in amazement.

"You sure you're not escaping?" Karin asked as she came down the stairs.

Naruto rolled his eyes. "Yes, I'm not escaping from the only familiar place that's willing to help me right now." He said sarcastically. "And I also have to learn about this whole ghost thing anyway."

"Just in case." Yuzu said walking up to him and raising her pinky.

Naruto lightly chuckled and grasped hers with his. "I promise I'll be back."

Yuzu nodded, and that was his cue to quietly exit.

When the door closed Isshin poked his head from around the corner, seemingly eavesdropping a bit, but didn't want to reveal that fact. "Did Naruto just leave?"

"Yes, but he pinky promised he'd come back." Yuzu happily replied.

"Oh, okay." Her father dismissed and was about to head to his room before coming to a realization. "Does he even know his way around here?"

Yuzu's eyes lit up, coming to the same conclusion. "Uh…"

"Too late now." Karin casually said as she walked back up the stairs with a freshly poured glass of water in hand.

* * *

(Nighttime – Karakura Streets)

"Well, that just happened." Naruto muttered to himself, hands in his pockets as he walked the quiet streets of the newly identified Karakura Town.

 _ **"** **It's a start. What else would you have done?"**_

Naruto sighed. "No idea. I guess I got lucky to have met them. Like Isshin said, they're helping me get a fresh start, so I can at least use their kindness to understand exactly what I'm dealing with here."

 _ **"** **Quick idea since you seem to be in the clear, try summoning the toads."**_

Naruto couldn't have reacted faster when did the proper procedure of biting his thumb to draw blood and performing the necessary seals.

" **Kuchiyose no Jutsu!** " (Summoning Technique).

There was a poof of smoke as expected, but when it cleared there was-

"Nothing…" That seemed like the last hope since technically the toads were in a dimension of their own. If he couldn't summon them here, then they couldn't reverse summon him for whatever unknown reason. Maybe it had been a breach of contract or it was just something to do with this world? Whatever the reason was, the current result didn't help the blonde's still tender psyche.

"Fuck!" He shouted in aggravation as he kicked a disregarded glass bottle into a nearby brick wall, making it burst into shards easily.

Now hurriedly walking in some random direction in an attempt calm his anxious nerves he eventually found himself traveling along a guided path in a park. Of course it was completely empty, leaving it with a creepy vibe as the moon bathed its light onto the open areas and through the crevices amongst the branches of the trees.

He didn't know when he did, but in a strange sense of déjà vu he found himself becoming more aware of his surroundings as he sat on a tire swing, slightly moving back and forth with what little bit of momentum he built up.

"We've come a long way." He whispered, leaning his head against the main rope holding the swing up.

 _ **"** **Yep, the last time you were like this you were stupid, lonely, and had no hope of achieving anything. Now you're sorta smarter, sorta lonely given the situation, and you saved the world. Not bad all things considered."**_

"Thank you, your heartfelt words sooth my soul." He replied in monotone.

 _ **"** **You have all the time in the world to get used to it now, so prepare your heartstrings."**_

"You've become a lot more talkative."

 _ **"** **Yeah, maybe, but that's only because I didn't really expect to live this long and who are you going to tell if I say something stupid? No one here would believe you have a demon fox in your gut unless you go all chakra beast. We're partners now anyway, so why not chat more? I've got nothing else to do but sleep."**_

"Well, you'll probably be doing that a lot, not like I have to fight any more freaks with a god complex trying to take over the world or anything."

 _ **"** **I can see your future now, a middle-aged blonde man that let himself go, working as an assistant manager of some rundown business with a bitchy wife at home and ungrateful brats skipping school."**_

"Maybe you should sleep now…"

 _ **"** **Nope, I'm annoying you all night. I'm still alive and I'm going enjoy the time gifted to me, and it's not like you would cut me off anyway, you lonely piece of-"**_

Naruto waited for the biju to continue, but was only met with silence.

"Kurama?"

 _ **"Quiet**_ **!"**

 _"What's wrong?"_ He asked mentally.

 _ **"** **Don't you feel that?"**_

Naruto took his head off of the thick rope and looked around him, trying to see whatever Kurama detected. As he gazed at the dark playground he was next to, all he was able to see was the emptiness that accompanied the area and the shadowed foliage from the trees surrounding him. The only sound he was able to pick up was the light and cool breeze blowing through, slightly pushing the nearby swings, making them squeak in a consistent rhythm.

Figuring he should heighten his senses more he pulsed his chakra, something that would probably be overkill in a world that seemed to not have ninjas, but he had to make sure there wasn't something creeping up on him.

The instant he sent out a minor pulse he felt it, whatever it was. With a sudden chill down his spine he slowly turned his head directly to his left, an area that was heavily riddled with trees, and found the source of the malicious intent he came into contact with.

His breath stopped, all sounds stilled, and his body froze as he saw it maybe a little over fifty yards from him.

Barely concealed in the shadows of a single branch were two beady yellow eyes staring right at him, unblinkingly waiting, as if seeing exactly what he'd do now that they were making direct eye contact.

' _What…the hell…is that?'_

It seemed to react to his thoughts as it moved a tad bit forward, showing a fraction of what looked like a large white mask, similar to a skull, only misshapen as it hugged the face of the large creature.

Abruptly getting off of the tire, Naruto continued to stare down his observer, as if challenging it to make the first move.

Suddenly a deep and unnerving chuckle echoed through the air.

 **"Such powerful spiritual energy in one so young, and a human at that."** The creature said from its semi hidden position.

"A human that will kick your ass if you don't get out of there!" Naruto yelled narrowing his eyes at him, letting a little of the fox's chakra momentarily turn them red to give him a more intimidating appearance.

 **"Oh, and he can see me? Maybe not a completely normal human then, but even with so much spiritual power you're not a Shinigami…yes, you'll be quite the interesting meal…"** It said as it crawled forward slowly, revealing its disturbing form.

Along with the skull-like mask there was two rows of giant human-like teeth attached to it, some of them cracked. With no more features of its head in sight the shinobi saw that the rest of its large pitch black body hung low to the ground. Its entire and surprisingly thin torso was facing down, chest with a hidden and hollowed hole from front to back almost touching the blades of grass below it. Despite its body angled the way it was, its door-sized head was looking straight up at him, something that would severely strain or potentially break a normal person's neck if they were such in a position. Holding its frame up were creepily long arms and legs that were thin to match its main body, the elbows and knees all pointing unnaturally straight up and reaching about seven feet above its back. Connected to those joints were hands with long and skinny fingers, almost looking like claws as they gripped into the ground, and feet that couldn't really be called much as they looked like appendages found on a scorpion.

In short, it looked like something straight out of a horror movie.

 **"Now if you don't mind, would you please stay still so I can enjoy consuming that sweet soul of yours?"** Its demonic voice sounded from a barely opened maw.

"Sorry, I still plan on using mine for a little longer."

 **"I hope a few more seconds is long enough."** And just like that, with a few sickening crunches as it turned its head completely upside down and opened its jaw to an extreme length, it let out a disgusting and ferocious wail before launching at the blonde at great speeds.

As it tried to take a bite out of him, all it got was a mouth full of wood as a log now took the ninja's place.

 **"Hm?"**

"Like I said, you shitty movie prop, I'm still using this soul!" Naruto shouted behind the monster as he threw an explosive-tagged and chakra enhanced kunai stored in a seal on his wrist; much more convenient than a simple pouch that could be lost in battle.

The creature grunted in discomfort as the blade stabbed into its side before reaching the end of its fuse and tearing off a chunk of flesh. With blood spurting and ripped and burned flesh flying, the monster roared in fury and pain as it turned its furious sights back to the blonde.

With another rush it tried to swipe at Naruto with its sharp fingers, but was surprised that its target instantly turned to smoke.

"That's not gonna work either!" Naruto once again shouted behind him, have created and replacing himself with a Kage Bunshin.

With even angrier yellow eyes the monstrosity decided to take it up a notch to its increasingly difficult prey. Turning around it extended its right hand with fingers pointed right at the standing Uzumaki. After a mental command the almost needle-like fingers started launching at Naruto at alarming rates, quickly replenishing themselves and firing off like a machine gun.

Not expecting this kind of attack, Naruto was struck with more than a few on his body before transporting onto a nearby tree branch with a hasty Shunshin (Body Flicker). Momentarily out of sight Naruto took that chance to rip out some of the projectiles in his left arm, leg, and side before tossing them away.

 _ **"** **You underestimated the freak."**_

 _"Won't happen again. Those were like oversized senbon, I should be better than this!"_

 ** _"_ You can't hide with your reiatsu as big as it is, you fool!" **An angry wail cried out as the monster speedily approached the tree Naruto was hiding in and swiped right through the middle of the trunk with explosive strength.

"Damn it!" Naruto jumped away to the middle of the grass again as splinters and other chunks of wood flew through the air, some leaving small cuts on exposed skin on his arms and face.

Now seeing his target out in the open for the picking, it tried to simply grab him and rip him apart.

"You're not very creative, the only thing special were those stupid fingers." Naruto muttered as his enemy was only ten feet away and closing in. "And that's gonna cost you."

With a quick flick of his wrist he threw a smoke bomb that detonated in front of him in a big cloud of black.

Not being able to stop its momentum, the murderous being shot through the black smoke, managing to launch a desperate lunge forward to grab its victim before he managed to escape. With great satisfaction it saw that it managed to wrap its hands around a struggling Naruto's body as it slid across the ground eventually coming to a harsh stop.

 **"You thought you were going to get away, you damn piece of meat?!"** It shouted in Naruto's face.

Weirdly enough Naruto stopped struggling and actually gained a vicious smirk before his entire body detonated, creating a large explosion and making the creature roll backwards twenty feet away.

Regaining its bearings, it finally registered that its arms were now only nubs and the front of its body was badly burned.

 **"What's with these stupid magic tricks?! This isn't Kido!"**

"Don't know what Kido is, but that was Bunshin Daibakuha (Clone Great Explosion). It might as well be magic to you, though! Abracadabra, bitch!" Naruto's voice yelled from above.

As injured as the demonic assailant was, all it could do was look up as the young man he thought would be easy pickings descended towards him from the sky, a strange sphere of energy held in his hand.

 **"Rasengan!"** Naruto shouted as his attack made contact with the monster's forehead. It only took a short moment for the swirling ball to start grinding into the mask, causing his enemy to start screaming as its felt the attack shred and crack its face.

With one final wail, the monster finally gave in to the ongoing damage and suddenly exploded in black particles that quickly faded away with the wind.

Watching the last of his foe disappear, Naruto dispersed the Rasengan and looked around at some of the damage done the area.

"Okay…first ghosts, whatever the hell that thing was, and some crap called reiatsu and Kido…I really need to find out what's going on around here."

 _ **"** **Do it later. After everything that's happened today alone, you're going to need to sleep on it."**_

Naruto gave one heavy exhale before saying, "Sleep sounds so good right now." With a decision to rest and recuperate, Naruto started walking forward and froze mid-step.

 _ **"** **What's wrong?"**_

"Where am I?"

 _ **"** **Damn it, Naruto…"**_

* * *

(The next Morning – Kurosaki Residence)

"What in the hell happened here?" Naruto whispered as he stood in front of the house belonging to Isshin and his family. Even though he hadn't been here long, he was definitely sure there wasn't a gaping and hastily boarded up hole on the front of the house when he left…

"Naruto! Glad to see you came back!" Isshin enthusiastically shouted as he left the house and joined the blonde in looking at the damage.

"Um…what did I miss?" Naruto quietly asked.

"Something big you wouldn't believe! In the middle of the night someone drove a truck straight through the wall without waking anyone up!"

"A truck?" Yes, he knew what a truck was. You tend to see some vehicles labeled as such when you travel around a city aimlessly all night in search of your temporary home.

"Yep! Thankfully no one was hurt, but I do hope he comes back to apologize someday." He trailed off while holding his chin in thought.

"I'm sure he will…"

"Anyway, come in and get some leftover breakfast! Ichigo and the girls already left for school so it's just us all day!"

Yay…

"Hopefully you'll join Ichigo soon, just give me some information and I'll get you set up in a day or two!"

Double yay…

"Now c'mon!" Isshin yelled as he grabbed Naruto's shoulder to usher him, but at this point the doctor finally noticed the state of the blonde's body.

His borrowed clothes had rips and tears in them, little drops of blood splattered here and there. His hair was a greasy mess, his bangs hanging down, but not enough to cover his tired blue eyes that had bags under them. Dirt and sweat was layered on his face where whatever cuts that were there hours ago healed without nary a mark.

At least his headband and necklace were unaffected, both hanging around his neck without as much as a scuff on them.

"What happened to you?" Isshin asked.

After lazily looking down with drowsy eyes, Naruto looked right into Isshin's.

"…I fell."

* * *

 **AN: Okay, in hindsight, probably a little bit too much dialogue…oh well! This was just an idea to throw out there and mess with in whatever free time I can get in the future if I feel like it, so updates aren't scheduled and can happen at any time.**

 **Hopefully what I put together made sense and didn't seem stupid, although I'm sure others have come up with crazier reasons for Naruto to cross over into other worlds. What happened with Naruto here is similar to the situation in my other story, but it still works, to me at least, and is just something to get the story started because just like in the other one I'm pretty sure I'm not going to include the Elemental Nations at all.**

 **Nothing is ever set in stone, though, since with my writing on the spot style, anything can happen.**

 **And just as a heads up, some things in Naruto's upbringing might be changed (techniques, events, etc) to fit with how I want him. There's nothing drastic, he just might know different things and certain AU elements might be involved, as shown by the necklace surviving to this point and him knowing the explosive clone technique, but I do plan to keep his personality. He's just smarter and more skillful (I always hate when literally everything is changed about him, without a trace of what he looked and acted like. At that point he might as well be an OC).**

 **Not sure where this story is all heading, but the potential it has is fun to think about, so maybe it can grow into something good?**

 **If you liked it, great! If not, thanks for giving it a chance.**

 **Either way, if you could leave a review of your thoughts about this start, I would greatly appreciate it :)**

 **And since it's come up more than once, yes, I'm aware that Naruto was 17 at the end. This is a part of the AU elements I've instilled since the timeline would be weird because the months are completely different. It also makes it easier to get Naruto involved with everyone Ichigo's age.**

 **And no, Naruto isn't nerfed. He still wasn't all there in the head mentally and emotionally, along with facing a completely mysterious enemy, so it took him a little longer to gauge the situation and get back into the groove of things.**

 **Hopefully that clears things up, especially with those that aren't signed in for me to reply to.**

 **Well, I got nothing else to say, so thanks for reading!**

 **Later!**


	2. Settling In

**AN: Wow, you guys are awesome! Just one chapter and this story already has a lot of support! Read on, my lovelies!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach.**

* * *

 **Chapter 2: Settling In**

(Karakura High School – Classroom – Lunch Period)

"Mizuiro, what do you mean Ichigo might not come in today?" Tatsuki asked.

"Well," A young and short boy with black hair and green eyes started as he sat down in his desk, "When I showed up at his house this morning there was a big hole in the side of his house. His dad said a truck crashed through it last night."

"A truck?!" Tatsuki said in surprise. "Does that mean he's hurt? Or maybe even dea-" She couldn't complete her sentence due to a book bag tapping against the back of her head a little roughly.

"I'm not dead. Nobody was hurt, sorry to disappoint you." The now arrived Ichigo said as he looked down at his tomboyish friend as she rubbed the spot where she was hit with his ever present frowny look.

"Hello, Kurosaki-kun!" Orihime enthusiastically greeted at the sudden appearance of her fellow student with orange hair.

"Hey, looking as happy as always, Inoue." Ichigo responded as he sat down at his own desk.

"So that's why you're late? Did they get the guy that crashed the truck?" Another young man with medium-length brown hair asked from beside Mizuiro.

"Uh, no, Keigo. He was gone before any of us knew that it happened." Ichigo retorted, not wanting to unveil the hollow attack on his family, not like anyone would believe him anyway.

That Shinigami made sure of that.

"Do you need help cleaning up?" A deep and masculine voice asked from behind Ichigo.

Glancing over his shoulder, Ichigo saw it was his classmate, a tall and heavily built young man with dark skin and wavy brown hair covering his eyes by the name of Sado Yasutora, otherwise known as-

"Nah, it's alright, Chad. Thanks, though." Ichigo said and received a small nod from his Mexican friend.

"Heh, you'd probably destroy more than you can clean up, Chad." Keigo offhandedly said.

"By the way, Ichigo?" Tatsuki inquired.

"Yeah?"

"Orihime and I saw you carrying that bloody guy away yesterday after school. What happened to him?"

If his friends weren't enthralled by the conversation, they certainly were now. Even most of the students that were close enough to hear them suddenly found themselves trying to listen in to this interesting installment.

"No idea. I just found him in an alley with his clothes messed up, which were weird by the way, and blood all over his body, especially on his head where a nasty gash was."

"Is he okay?" Orihime asked with a tinge of concern in her brown eyes.

Ichigo nodded. "There surprisingly wasn't anything too damaging from how he looked when I found him, but what's weird is that he healed _way_ too well."

"How well?" Keigo asked.

"From what Yuzu told me, that wound on his head was just gone later in the night, like it wasn't ever there, only a little mark where it was. I have no idea how that's possible, even my dad was surprised. This guy was supposed to be bedridden, yet he was able to walk it off with a fractured leg like it was nothing. I don't get it…" Ichigo trailed off.

The others only really raised their eyebrows in interest and slight doubt.

"Maybe he's a superhero." Keigo shrugged with a joking smile. "Someone sent here to heroically change the minds of women who don't give perfectly good guys a chance at love!" He finished with a dramatic fist bump towards the ceiling.

Everyone stared blandly at him. "Don't make this about you…" Tatsuki muttered.

"Anyway…" Mizuiro started, "Are you sure your dad didn't make a mistake at assessing his injuries? That sounds like something straight out of a manga."

"Positive. My dad never makes those kinds of mistakes, and I saw most of the wounds myself. His head looked bad enough to get a lot of stitches when I found him, but when I brought him to the clinic it was healed enough to only need disinfectant and bandages. Even some of the smaller scratches were just completely gone, and I know they were there because of the dried blood around the spots I saw them at."

"Okay, maybe he really is a superhero. Sweet." Keigo said with a smile.

"Or villain." Mizuiro commented.

Keigo's eyes widened. "He's not a villain, is he, Ichigo?!"

Ichigo blankly stared back at him. "No."

"How do you know that?! He could be plotting his evil plans as we speak!" Keigo responded dramatically.

The orange-haired boy shrugged. "He seemed like a decent enough guy. Yuzu and my dad warmed up to him pretty fast, and Karin doesn't seem to mind him."

"You're saying that like you live with the guy." Tatsuki stated.

"Yeah…"

"He's staying at your house? I understand patients being there overnight and maybe a little more, but he's actually going to live there?" Keigo asked.

Ichigo nodded. "Turns out the guy has nowhere to go. He had no identification on him, apparently is an orphan and doesn't have any other relatives or friends to contact. He's even from some sort of isolated village that we've never heard of, so there's no records of him anywhere. With him being our age on top of that, my dad and Yuzu instantly felt…charitable."

"I see…" Tatskui muttered before hearing a couple of strong sniffs next to her. Turning her head she saw her best friend's eyes shimmering with unshed tears and her bottom lip comically quivering something fierce.

"He doesn't have anyone…?" She whispered.

Trying to prevent Orihime from causing a scene due to her unnatural compassion, Tatsuki went into action. "Hey, it's alright! I'm sure he'll be fine, right Ichigo?" She glanced to the guy in question trying to probe him to help.

Unfortunately, he didn't get the hint.

"I don't know. He went for a walk last night and didn't come back by the time we all fell asleep. When I checked in the morning he still wasn't there." He said nonchalantly with a wave of his hand.

"He's out there alone? W-what if he's been kidnapped?! Doomed to live a lonely life as a house slave to a family of Yakuza robots sent from Pluto to monopolize the baked goods market?! What if he escaped today and left the stove on?!" Orihime stammered out with a visualization that only made sense in her mind.

Such an active imagination, that girl.

Before anyone could comment on the craziest words they've heard from their friend, at least today, a vibration was heard. Knowing exactly what it was, Ichigo reached into his pocket and pulled out his phone that was receiving a call from an unknown number.

After a small pause he brought the phone to his ear. "Hello? Naruto? Where have you bee- you got lost? How did you manage to do that? Oh, right, right, never been around here before. But all night, seriously? Hey, there's no need for that language if you're in public, and what the heck is dattebayo?"

"Dattebayo?" Orihime whispered and looked at her friends questionably, momentarily going back to normal. Only getting shrugs in response, she and everyone else, including some nosy students, watched on as Ichigo continued with his conversation with a slight monotone voice.

"Whatever, so what are doing, resting? Wait, you and dad are shopping? Why are- yeah, yeah, I know, fast healing and whatnot, but this is pushing it if you didn't sleep. Oh, so he got you a phone? Really, a ramen app? Yep, technology is amazing, isn't it? Uh-huh, there's thousands more- yes, really, and don't yell into the receiver! See, it hurts, doesn't it? Huh? Oh, hey, dad. So you took him out? Why didn't you keep him at the house? And why did you listen to him? Letting you borrow Icha-Icha? What does that even mean? Why wouldn't I be worried about it if you're closing down the clinic just for this?! Even if it has a giant hole, you- but…fine! Do what you want, but you're on your own if someone gets hurt and needs help. You're about to get his information taken care of? So you're really going to enroll him here?"

Ichigo's friends raised an intrigued eyebrow at this.

"Who is that guy you said you knew? Not even a hint? Whatever. I'll see you later then. Bye." Ichigo finally ended the conversation and tapped his screen a few times to add Naruto's number to his contact list just in case.

Once pocketing the device, Ichigo looked up and saw that everyone was looking at him expectantly.

"Uh…that was Naruto, the fast healing village guy I was talking about. Turns out he got lost and was walking around the city all night and got back after we all left for school. Now he and my dad are out getting him stuff like a phone apparently." He said.

"Fishcake?" Orihime tilted her head.

"Maelstrom actually, Yuzu asked the same thing." Ichigo replied.

"So did we hear that right? Is he going to go to school here?" Keigo asked.

Ichigo shrugged. "I guess, and he kinda needs it anyway since he didn't even know what country we're all in. Like I said, he's from some village and doesn't know much about everything around here. He just discovered smart phones and was all excited."

"Sounds like an interesting guy. I am _so_ going to show him video games; it'll probably blow his mind." Keigo said with a smile.

"So when do we get to meet him?" Mizuiro asked.

"Whenever you either go to my place or when or if he gets into school." Ichigo responded.

"So you're Kurosaki-kun?" An eerily familiar and feminine voice asked behind Ichigo.

Quickly snapping his head over his shoulder he saw that the person addressing him was a short and petite girl with short black hair that had a long bang going between her eyes.

' _What the hell is she doing here?!'_ Ichigo thought in panic.

* * *

(Karakura Town – Streets)

"How much farther do we have to go to get to this shop?" Naruto asked as he walked a little behind Isshin.

"Just another block, and then we'll get the last of our business today taken care of. You might even be able to attend school tomorrow!" Isshin jovially said as they walked across the street.

"And remind again why I would even go there willingly?"

"Because if you don't then I can cancel that phone of yours." Isshin replied with a teasing smile.

"Oh yeah…" Naruto muttered while instinctively placing a protective hold on his new piece of technology.

Earlier in the morning after Naruto came back from his wandering adventure and strange supernatural encounter he refrained from mentioning for now, he was immediately ushered into the Kurosaki family home to get something to satisfy his empty stomach. Once his meal was shoveled down he was given a change of clothes…again, and was offered to perhaps take a little shopping trip the next day to get him some essentials.

That plan was all fine until Naruto took a glance out the window and spotted a man walking down the sidewalk carrying a steaming serving of ramen in a large takeout bag that he most likely picked up from a stand or restaurant of some sort.

Now, while Naruto was a hardened warrior that could keep a cool and calculated head when the situation was serious enough, there was just some things that could render his controlled thoughts mute.

Ramen just happened to be one of them.

That's why any thoughts of his previous desire for a shower and a hibernating nap were presumably grabbed, gagged, and thrown out the metaphorical window into a mental dumpster where they would rest until they brought use once again.

With a newfound desire to taste his favorite meal, he told Isshin he wanted to get the trip over with immediately and to lead the way towards whatever stores he had in mind…preferably near a business that held the heavenly noodles, of course.

Isshin predictably told him he should rest, but after a little begging and offering one of his godfather's infamous books that were handed down to him to borrow, Isshin was swayed. The father wanted it to be known that he was ashamed and only agreed because of Naruto's superior negotiation skills.

That probably would've been more convincing if he wasn't smiling while flipping through the pages.

Shortly after that they took off towards the shopping district and visited multiple stores that caught their eye, one of them being an establishment that sold cell phones. Isshin decided to buy him one just for safety's sake in case he needed to contact someone and because it could be handy for all sorts of things.

Namely a GPS so he wouldn't have a repeat of the previous night.

At first Naruto didn't think much of it, but after being told some little tidbits of information about its features, he was actually really impressed. A device that could contact anyone in the world instantly, have a bunch of useful tools like maps that actually showed his location, and other miscellaneous things was something he'd bet everyone back home would've loved to have.

But also having these things that were installed called apps that did all sorts of services, one of which that allowed him to quickly order ramen to be delivered wherever he was?! Hell to the yes!

He never really partook in much tech back in Konohagakure besides watching a little TV and going to a movie or two every now and then, but he knew that this world was a good distance ahead of them. The only other devices he was ever really aware of were small things like batteries, cameras, radios they'd use in the field, and some low-processing computers that were mostly used to monitor patients in the hospital; he should know, he was in there a lot, so he'd stare at those stupid machines because he couldn't leave, otherwise he'd face Sakura-chan or Baa-chan's wrath, or even Shizune-nee-chan's disappointed look.

For some strange reason, the latter hurt more, go figure.

Anyway, besides chakra armor and whatever else Haru no Kuni was cooking up, this place was pretty advanced compared to the rest of the Elemental Nations.

Like earlier in a shop's window he saw a bunch of TVs that were much bigger than the norm he was used to. They also had a much better picture and they were flat. Flat! They didn't have to be a damn box! What other phenomena did this world hold?!

Now here he was, carrying a few shopping bags in one hand while playing around with his new phone in the other. Who could blame him, really? Besides being introduced to what the touch-screened device could do, it even had a nice little dash of his personality. This was in the form of a burnt orange protective phone case that had a black custom-made Uzumaki swirl embedded on the back, of his own design, of course.

The wonders of a mall kiosk were fascinating.

He even got his own set of clothes, so now he didn't have to borrow from either males of the Kurosaki family. Now adorning his frame, besides the headband and necklace that were already around his neck, was an orange t-shirt with all kinds of somewhat barely visible and miscellaneous designs he wasn't familiar with, but who cares, because orange, right? Accompanying that was a pair of black and slightly baggy pants, along with black and white sneakers on his feet because apparently shinobi sandals would've looked a little weird.

Fashion over practicality…freaking amateurs…

Whatever he wasn't wearing were in the bags that he was carrying. They weren't much and were kind of lacking in variety by the standards of those now around him, but it was a start. It's not like he was a fashion freak anyway, especially since he used to have multiple copies of similar shinobi gear and only a few other pieces of clothing for comfortability's sake when he wasn't doing anything. But with those mostly gone, except for whatever he had sealed away which wasn't abundant and stood out too much like his red sage cloak, he really needed at least a small wardrobe.

Maybe he could get some custom clothing too? That would have to come later, though, since he really didn't want to take too much advantage of Isshin's wallet; the man was already being really generous as it was.

Looks like he'll have to get a job if he wanted more stuff and to get started on raising funds to eventually support himself, because it's not like he'd steal anything no matter how easy it was here; his stupid conscience wouldn't let him.

Although even after wearing what was supposed to be normal clothes, he kept on getting a bunch of stares and passing glances as they continued walking. After pocketing his phone and catching the eye of a particular young lady in the crowd that caused her to immediately turn away, he couldn't help but feel a little self-conscious.

"What's with everyone? I'm pretty sure there's no more blood on me anymore, and I even have my own clothes. What gives?" Naruto asked himself.

"Besides the bags under your eyes, whiskers, and bright yellow hair?" Isshin remarked over his shoulder.

Naruto paused and thought to himself for a bit. "Alright, I get the whole exhausted look and whiskers, but why my hair?"

"Blonde hair isn't exactly common around here, and when someone does have that color, it usually means they dyed or bleached it. In short, it pretty much gives anyone with blonde hair a sort of delinquent vibe."

"And I'm guessing the whiskers being mistaken as some sort of face tattoos aren't helping?"

Isshin nodded.

The blonde sighed. "Whatever."

"Don't let it get to ya! Once people get to know you, they'll like you, I'm sure!" Isshin supportively exclaimed.

"Or I save the save the city from certain death…" Naruto muttered.

"What was that?"

Naruto broke out of his thoughts. "Uh, nothing. Anyway, how closer are we?"

"It should be- oh, here it is!" Isshin shouted as they rounded another corner.

Now in front of them was what looked like a small two-story building that didn't take up much of its land like the buildings around it as seen by the open front 'yard' so-to-speak. It seemed pretty humble and wasn't flashy at all from what they could see. The only other distinguishable feature was that there was a small vehicle parked next to it, a van if Naruto remembered correctly from what Isshin told him earlier when they were walking the streets.

"Urahara Shop?" Naruto said as he read the big sign hanging on the front.

"Yep, now c'mon! We're burning daylight!" Isshin exclaimed as he marched towards the entrance.

The blonde shinobi shrugged and followed after him, only with a much more casual stride.

As they got closer they saw two young children sweeping in front of the shop's sliding doors. One was a boy with striking and short red hair while the other was a girl with black hair that had two strands of her bangs hanging in the middle of her face while the rest was put up in two pigtails. When the children noticed them, Naruto and Isshin were able to see the identical white t-shirts with the shop's name they were wearing, along with a perpetual blush on the girl's cheeks. The only difference in their attire was that the boy wore blue trousers that just went past his knees while the girl wore a pink knee-length skirt with white dots on it.

"Yo! Is Kisuke around?" Isshin greeted.

While the girl remained silent and chose to stare, the boy responded immediately.

"Who wants to know, old man?" He said.

Despite getting a small tick in the brow from the kid's comment, along with Naruto's almost unnoticeable snort of laughter, Isshin remained focused on his reason for being here, but before he could continue the doors opened and a male voice rang out.

"Now, now, Jinta, don't be rude. I was actually expecting him." The man that said this was tall and had light blonde hair, a stubble on his jawline, a green and white-striped bucket hat that shadowed his eyes, a dark cloak with white diamond patterns near the bottom hem, green shirt and pants, geta sandals, and a small fan in his hand.

Isshin schooled his features. "Kisuke."

"Isshin." Kisuke replied with a small smile.

"It's been a while." Isshin stated.

"More than a while, so it certainly surprised me when you suddenly called for a favor to help a lost little soul," He diverted his shadowed eyes towards Naruto, or more specifically the markings on his face, "Or cat."

Naruto suddenly had a minor annoyed look. "Fox…" He grumbled.

"So do you have what I asked for?" Isshnin asked.

"Of course, of course. Ururu?" Kisuke inquired.

The now identified girl nodded at the unspoken question and headed inside the shop.

After watching his young employee close the doors, Kisuke turned his attention back to his fellow blonde.

"So, Uzumaki-san, I understand that you're new around here?"

Naruto nodded. "And I assume that you're the 'guy' that's helping us out?"

"Indeed. I have to admit, your story is pretty interesting. A young man such as yourself turning up out of nowhere with various injuries and absolutely no trail to follow." He gave a look over Naruto's frame. "You look like you've recovered fairly quickly." He said with a curious tone.

"I guess I'm just lucky like that." Naruto responded, not really wanting to reveal anything noteworthy to this guy.

There was just something about him that felt…different…

Before the conversation continued any further, Ururu came back out holding a manila folder instead of a broom. After walking up to Kisuke where she received a nudge from his head towards their guests, she walked up to Naruto and held the folder out for him.

"Thank you." He said with a smile as he took the item.

She sent a barely noticeable one in return and was about to walk back next to her boss until she hesitated and kept on looking at his face.

"Uh, anything wrong?" Naruto questioned.

All he got in response was her slowly bringing up a finger to her face and tapping her left cheek a couple of times.

Getting the hidden message, Naruto sighed and grew a resigned smile. "Birthmarks." He simply said.

Her eyes slightly widened before she gave a little nod and walked back next to Jinta and Kisuke.

"So is everything in order?" Isshin asked Kisuke.

The man in question nodded and covered his face with his fan out of habit. "It's all there; all the documentation he needs to get started and even attend school." He gave Naruto a teasing smile. "Isn't that great?"

Naruto looked at him blankly. "Don't remind me." He muttered.

"Well, we'd best be going then." Isshin said.

Kisuke nodded. "Don't be a stranger. You too, Naruto, feel free to stop by anytime. I'm sure we have all kinds of wares that would interest you."

"I'll keep that in mind. Thanks for helping me out." The shinobi responded politely.

Hey, just because the guy seemed a little odd doesn't mean he didn't appreciate the help. He had manners too!

Well…he did after having them beaten into his mind by some of his friends and superiors…sometimes literally…

The shopkeeper waved his thanks off. "Don't worry about it. Everyone needs a bit of help every now and then, and I'm sure you'll turn out to be someone very interesting in the coming future." He said in a somewhat amused tone.

"Uh, yeah…sure…thanks again." Naruto said as he and Isshin turned around and made their way off the property with Kisuke giving them a small wave in goodbye while Jinta and Ururu quietly observed.

As the duo made their way onto the main sidewalk once again Isshin said, "So, you ready to head back?"

"Yep," Naruto started before casting him an intense stare, "But you said you'd show me a ramen place after we were done…"

Isshin chuckled. "Yeah, yeah. There's one we'll bump into on the path we're taking."

Naruto nodded in satisfaction before taking a glance at the files in the folder. "Got to admit, that Kisuke guy works fast. Hard to believe he was able to get this ready just from some basic info I told you at dinner last night."

Isshin grunted in agreement. "Urahara Kisuke, he's always been a resourceful one. What do you think of him?" He glanced to Naruto with a curious brow.

Naruto shrugged. "Well, the words 'stranger' and 'danger' come to mind, and for some reason seeing a guy who has a good portion of his face hidden while having a van and two child workers seems like a bad combination." He said jokingly.

All Isshin did was bark in laughter as they kept going on their merry way.

* * *

(Front of Urahara Shop – Same Time)

"So who were those guys anyway?" Jinta asked.

Kisuke stared at corner where Isshin and Naruto disappeared for another moment before saying, "Don't worry about it. They were just customers." He then smiled down at Jinta and Ururu with his hands on his hips. "Now go on, you two. You both have to help with organizing the storage room."

After giving two affirmed nods, the children walked back inside to start their task.

When the two were out of sight Kisuke turned back to where he was looking at prior before another presence walked next to him.

"So you sensed it too?" A new and masculine voice asked.

Kisuke nodded. "That young man is certainly an interesting one. He'll be someone we'll need to keep an eye out for, given the power he seems to hold. Who knows what he'll get himself involved with? Oh well, he seems pretty harmless right now and doesn't look to have any ill intent, so let's not get too nosy. Let's go help out the kids, Tessai." He said before walking back into his shop with his tall and muscular friend following him.

* * *

(Kurosaki Residence – Afternoon)

 _'What the hell is going on with my life?'_ A mentally drained Ichigo thought as he approached his family home.

First, there was the attack on his family, then coming face-to-face with a freaking spiritual warrior called a Shinigami, becoming one himself for what he thought was going to be that one fight, finding out that same Shinigami was now attending his school and needed him to fill in for her duties, ended up accepting the role, albeit reluctantly, and then fought another of those damn hollows while under decisive pressure.

Then there was the whole incident with a student finding his unresponsive body on the sidewalk outside the school… _that_ was fun…

To think, before late last night his life was already weird enough with being able to see spirits, but by morning he had experienced fighting a demonic monster with a giant sword.

Life just throws curveballs at you sometimes…

As Ichigo opened the front door to his house and turned the corner in the hallway to look into the living room, he was greeted to another weird factor added to his life.

This was of course the blonde guy known as Naruto who was taking temporary residence at his house. What was strange about the sight in front of him, though, wasn't the view of a newly dressed and snoring Naruto completely lying face down on the couch with an arm hanging towards the ground, but the fact that both of his sisters were sitting on his sleeping back and watching TV while enjoying a bowl of ramen.

"Uh, hi?" Ichigo asked as he walked in.

When both sisters took notice of their brother's presence, Yuzu smiled and said, "Hi, onii-chan!"

Karin, with a mouth full of food, mumbled, "Hey, Ichi-nii."

"Um, hey. So what's going on?" He qestioned pointing to the unconscious blonde.

"Naruto had a long day, so he's taking a nap." Yuzu replied while giving the blonde two small pats on the back of his head, eliciting a small snort and a twitching hand in response.

"I can see that, the guy hasn't slept in like two days. I meant why you are both sitting on him?"

Karin swallowed her food and answered. "Our show's on and these are our spots on the couch. Naruto doesn't mind anyway."

"I'm pretty sure that's because he can't really do anything right now, but okay then." Ichigo said as he walked towards the kitchen.

"Dad and Naruto picked up some ramen while they were out. There should be one or two bowls left for you on the table!" Yuzu called out over her shoulder.

"Alright." Ichigo replied as he made to get his own share of the food, but paused when he saw a huge pile of empty ramen bowls piled on top of each other on the counter.

"Who ate all of this?" Ichigo asked himself.

Karin, having heard him, said, "That was all Naruto from what dad said. He had seven or eight bowls after he took a shower and passed out here."

"Damn, he can eat…where's dad anyway?" Ichigo asked as he walked back in with his own bowl.

"In his office. I think he's getting everything ready for Naruto to get into school." Yuzu said.

"Of which he'll be doing in a couple of days." Isshin announced when he joined his family in the living room.

"So it's all official, huh?" Ichigo inquired.

"Yep, so show him around when the time comes." Isshin answered.

Ichigo nodded and was about to head to his room until he caught a certain gleam in his father's eye, one he knew too well.

"Come on, let him slee-"

"Nonsense!" Isshin interrupted, "He's already been asleep for about two hours, and he needs to be awake until later on to develop a proper sleeping pattern! Yuzu, Karin, please move out of the way." He requested as he took a few steps back in preparation.

The two girls immediately did so, but Yuzu tried to reason with her father.

"Do you really need to do this? Why don't you just wake him up gently?" Yuzu probed.

"This is for his own good. He's going to face the big bad world from now on and he needs to get stronger in every way possible!" Isshin retorted.

 _'Welcome to my life…'_ Ichigo thought as he watched on in minor pity for the sleeping blonde.

With nothing else in his way, Isshin exhaled one final breath before running a few steps forward and leaped into the air. As he made his decent with one leg aimed downward towards Naruto, he yelled, "Time to wake up!"

What happened next wasn't what anyone expected out of the exhausted blonde.

Just before Isshin's kick was about to make contact on the shinobi's back, Naruto suddenly flipped his body over, grabbed Isshin's leg, and harshly redirected the older man's body to the other side of the living room using his own forward momentum against him.

The result was a surprised and shouting Isshin flying through the air for a mere few fractions of a second before he slammed into the wall originally opposite from him face first and weirdly upside down. He was actually unmoving from the wall for a moment before gravity took effect and let his body slowly slide down. With the top of his head facing the ground it came as no surprise that his cranium was the first part of his body that made contact on the living room floor, making him plop onto his back unceremoniously with a few cracked pieces of the wall coming down with him.

"They grow up so fast…" He groaned with his eyes shut.

For a few seconds the three Kurosaki children merely stared at their currently immobile father before turning back to the blonde on the couch.

Naruto was sitting up with one arm still pointed forward from aiming his throw while his eyes were squinted shut and matched his tired and lightly annoyed face. Without even showing he was aware of what was going on, Naruto laid back down and turned on his right side, his back facing the family.

All was silent in the room until Naruto's rhythmic breathing was heard once again and indicated that he was back asleep, that is if he even woke up in the first place.

 _'Did he just do that on reflex?'_ Ichigo thought in surprise.

The eldest sibling of the Kurosaki family turned his head back to his father where he saw Karin poking Isshin with her foot repeatedly, trying to get a reaction from him while Yuzu was crouched down shaking his shoulder trying to do the same.

Huh, well so far Naruto's only been living here a day and he's already caused a little bodily harm to his crazy father.

He was already leaning towards his good side.

With nothing else to contribute to the situation and a bowl of ramen in hand, Ichigo started walking up the stairs nonchalantly with his trademark disinterested facial expression.

Maybe having a brother in spiritual bullshit around wouldn't be so bad after all?

* * *

(Kurosaki Residence – Morning – A Few Days Later)

Not much has happened to Naruto in the small amount of days from the little shopping trip to now. Naruto got enrolled into Karakura High School, received his uniform, and finally had that chat to discuss the whole seeing spirits situation.

All he learned was that, to Isshin's apparent jealousy, the Kurosaki children all had at least some ability to interact with spirits, although Yuzu could only really see ripples in the air that let her know that there was a spiritual presence. Ichigo and Karin on the other hand could see and talk to them clearly; the latter, though, didn't really acknowledge their existence for some reason.

When questioning how he suddenly had the same ability, all he got in return was collective shrugs and suggestions that maybe it just ran in his family or something of that sort, but that was a half-assed guess at best since it was just happening now.

He was pretty sure it had to do with this world in particular, but there wasn't really much to go on at the moment. Well, who cares, he'd just deal with it as it came along like everything else.

Whatever the reason was, because of knowing that a damn ghost could pop up anytime, he couldn't really find enough peace to get a good night's sleep. At every little crack or noise that he was able to hear at night in the quiet atmosphere he would feel like he was about to get ambushed.

Ninja paranoia with the addition of possible ghostly visitors at night was an instant mental shit-storm for him.

Well, at least if there was some crazy spiritual attack by something especially creepy like a laughing and bloody child ghost, he could get a little peace of mind knowing that Ichigo could take one for the team since they were sharing his room, Ichigo in his bed and himself in a futon against the opposite wall. One would think that an experienced shinobi that has gone to hell and back in the past few years wouldn't fear anything, so would he really sacrifice a high school kid to an otherworldly intruder?

Yes, yes he would.

So here they were now, getting ready for a wonderful world of education in the morning after having another guarded sleep, at least for Naruto.

"I look stupid…" Naruto said with distaste as he looked down at the gray uniform that was required to wear at Karakura's high school.

 _ **"** **Stupider."**_ The fox lazily chimed in with a yawn.

" _So don't need your shit right now…and where the hell have you been the past few days?"_ Naruto mentally replied.

 _ **"** **Sleeping."**_

 _"Lazy bastard."_

"Deal with it. Everyone has to wear the same thing." Ichigo replied while double-checking his book bag.

"Then you look stupid too." Naruto muttered as he kept fiddling with different parts of the uniform.

Ichigo sent his new roommate an annoyed look, but was ultimately ignored.

Ichigo's stare had nothing on a pissed off and drunk Tsunade.

"Whatever, but are you still going to wear that headband and necklace?" Ichigo asked while eyeing the black cloth with the engraved metal plate tied around his neck and the hidden green gem tucked into his black shirt.

"Yep, and if anyone has a problem then they'll just have to take them off by force." Naruto casually conversed as he was getting ready to zip up his blazer, but opted to keep it completely open, somewhat similar to Ichigo as he kept his only open around the chest.

"Those things must be important." Ichigo commented.

"Yup." The blonde said with a slightly stern undertone while he unconsciously readjusted the headband's black cloth.

 _'Must be a sensitive subject.'_ The orange-headed teen thought.

"You boys ready yet?" Isshin questioned as he walked into the living room.

"I think." Naruto said while he examined his new book bag hanging at his side.

Isshin waved him off. "You'll be fine. So Mizuiro is coming by as usual, Ichigo?"

"Like always. He should be here any minute now." Ichigo answered.

"So how do you think me meeting everyone is going to go?" Naruto asked Ichigo.

Ichigo shrugged. "Should go fine, I guess, but get ready for some looks to be sent your way. My hair has and still does have people judging me at school like I was some sort of bad guy by default, so your hair and whiskers are gonna be good enough to actually draw attention from me for once."

"Yeah, yeah, and maybe you'd help your own reputation by actually smiling once in a while." Naruto retorted.

Ichigo sent his blank and frowny expression Naruto's way.

"You're only proving my point, man." Naruto said.

With an apron still on her body from making breakfast earlier, Yuzu walked into the room and up to the blonde.

"You have everything?" She asked.

"Yep." Naruto offhandedly replied.

"Notebooks?"

"Yes."

"Pencils?"

"Indeed."

"Lunch?"

"Affirmative."

"Phone?"

"No doubt."

"What about-"

"Calm down, Yuzu, you don't have to baby him." Karin said when she walked in sipping on a juice box.

"But I need to, Karin-chan, it's his first day!" Yuzu replied while standing on the couch cushions to start adjusting Naruto's uniform and hair. The blonde himself didn't really pay much mind and let her be while messing around on his phone a little.

Hey, even if he was technically a grown-ass man by his home's standards, it didn't mean it didn't feel nice to be doted on once in a while.

That didn't mean he would admit it, even if he didn't have a reputation yet.

"Yeah, you're not gonna get anywhere with that," Naruto started when he saw Yuzu repeatedly fail to adjust his hair, "The only way my hair is gonna be affected at all is if you cut it."

Yuzu huffed and stepped off the couch. "Well, you're going to need a trim soon anyway, so I'll take care of it then." She said as she patted dust off of his pants.

"Cooks, cleans, and cuts hair too? Damn, Ichigo, you got it good here." Naruto commented.

"Yep." He simply said.

"Why thank you." Yuzu said with a smile as she walked into the kitchen to take care of something else on her chore list before getting ready for school herself.

At this point a couple of knocks from the front door sounded out.

"Guess Mizuiro's here, c'mon, Naruto, let's get going." Ichigo said and started walking out of the living room.

"Alright, later." Naruto said to Isshin and Karin before following Ichigo.

Karin lightly waved at him while Isshin said, "Hope it all goes well. Now go out there and be somebody!" He exclaimed.

"Uh, sure. See ya later, Yuzu!" Naruto called over his shoulder.

Yuzu's head popped into view from the kitchen corner. "Bye!"

Once they made it to the door Ichigo opened it up to see his friend and classmate Mizuiro standing patiently.

"Hey, Ichigo." Mizuiro greeted.

"Hey." Ichigo replied.

Mizuiro then noticed Naruto.

"So you're Naruto, right?" He asked.

The blonde nodded.

Mizuiro held out a hand. "I'm Kojima Mizuiro, nice to finally meet you." He said with a smile.

Naruto gave a light foxy grin back before shaking Mizuiro's hand. "Nice to meet you too."

"Well, let's get going. We can talk some more on the way." Ichigo said as he led the way.

With all three now walking side by side, Mizuiro spoke.

"Ichigo didn't mention you had face tattoos." He casually remarked to Naruto.

The shinobi heavily sighed.

He was getting real tired of repeating himself…

* * *

(Karakura High School – Classroom)

The classroom was bustling with students talking to their fellow classmates before their actual lessons started. They only had a few minutes left and they were going to milk any free time for all it was worth.

"Those two are really taking their time." Keigo muttered with his arms behind his head as he leaned back in his desk chair.

"They're going to be late if they don't get here in a minute or two." Tatsuki added in with her chin resting on her hand.

"I'm sure they have a good reason." Orihime said from next to Tatsuki.

The door then opened and in came their teacher, a young woman with long brown hair in a ponytail and round glasses on her face by the name of Ochi Misato. In her hand was a notebook of the day's lessons.

"Everyone get seated, class is about to start." She announced, getting everyone to quickly find their desks.

When everyone was in their designated spots another person walked in through the still open door.

"Oh, Kojima-san, nice of you to join us. It's strange, you're usually one of the first ones here." Misato commented.

Mizuiro had a sheepish expression on his face and said, "Well, you see…"

Suddenly two more voices were heard in the hallway outside of the classroom.

"You just _had_ to make a stop, didn't you? We might be late now!" A voice they all knew belonged to Ichigo echoed loudly in frustration.

"Hey! It's not my fault there was a ramen stand on the way here! What, do you expect me not to try it?!" Another masculine and unknown voice replied just as loud.

"You could've gone later!" Ichigo retorted annoyingly.

"I can't just skip out on opportunities like that! What if I'm dead later?!"

"Why would you die?!"

"Hit by a car, maybe?! You know I'm still getting used to this crap! I almost got hit twice on the way over here! You could've gone without me, y'know!"

"If I lost you and something happened, my dad would be on my ass, and I don't need more craziness in my life!"

"I would've found my way eventually! GPS, dude, G.P.S!"

"That's not always reliable! Now hurry up before I take that phone and shove it so far up your ass that not even the GPS could find- oh, we're here, and we barely made it…" Ichigo's voice trailed off when everyone could tell he was just outside of the class and out of view.

"See, it worked out, didn't it?" The mysterious voice asked with a little pep in his voice, all anger now forgotten.

"Shut up…" Ichigo replied as he entered the classroom and saw everyone, including the teacher, stare at him in interest and confusion.

Ichigo tried to play it off by clearing his throat and following Mizuri to their seats without looking at anyone.

He wouldn't have to worry about being the center of attention anyway since everyone's gaze suddenly turned towards the young man that followed him in.

The newcomer had his hands casually held behind his head with his eyes squinted and an easygoing expression on his face, a face they all noticed had three black horizontal lines on each cheek. With his spiky blonde hair, headband around his neck, and his misrepresentation of the school uniform included, he was certainly a sight to see.

He was actually following right behind his two companions, but was suddenly stopped when a hand grabbed his shoulder.

He opened his eyes more, revealing their blue color, and let his arms fall to his sides as he glanced at who he guessed to be the teacher.

"Are you the new student?" She asked.

"I guess." He replied with a small shrug.

"Welcome then, I'm your teacher, Ochi Misato!" She greeted before pulling him back to the front of the class for all to see. "Everyone, this is Uzumaki Naruto and he'll be joining us from now on!"

"Yo." He simply greeted with a small wave.

"Go on, introduce yourself better than that." Misato urged.

"How?"

"Tell us a bit about yourself. Like hobbies and other things."

"Alright, um…" He started as he turned to everyone staring at him, "I'm Uzumaki Naruto and I'm…" He trailed off with his face scrunched up in thought.

 _ **"** ** _-_ A loud dumbass at times." **_Kurama commented.

Naruto's eyebrow unnoticeably twitched and tried to ignore his tenant as he continued on.

"I'm a little outgoing."

 _ **"** ** _-_ Eats too much of those damnable noodles."**_

"My favorite food is ramen. I also hate the three minutes it takes to cook it by the way."

 _ **"** ** _-_ Is a shinobi with the skills to survive a world war and can kill these weaklings with a napkin."**_

"I like to be active and exercise when I can."

 _ **"** ** _-_ Is progressing in the sealing arts which is probably too much for his little mind to handle."**_

"I practice my calligraphy a little."

 _ **"** ** _-_ Wastes time taking care of stupid plant life."**_

"I like to water plants and garden on the side."

 _ **"** ** _-_ Is an experienced fighter against people that want to take over the world."**_

"I dislike jerks that are full of themselves and bad people in general."

 _ **"** ** _-_ Is a dimensional traveler with a bleak future at best."**_

"I like to travel and I'd like to think I'm open-minded to what I can learn and experience. I guess that's it for now since I wasn't really prepared." He said with a somewhat forced and sheepish smile on his face.

 _ **"** **But I had so much more!"**_

 _"Go to hell!"_ Naruto mentally scolded.

"Well, isn't that certainly interesting? Does anyone have any questions for Uzumaki-san?" Misato asked the rest of the class.

Keigo immediately shot his hand up.

"Yes, Asano?" Misaki inquired.

"Do those tattoos mean something, or did you just feel creative one day?" He asked.

Even if he didn't show it, Naruto was trying with all of his might to not to blow up at the guy because of the repeated question.

After deeply inhaling and exhaling to calm himself, he evenly said, "They're not tattoos, they're birthmarks."

More than a few pairs of eyes showed a little surprise and interest.

"Really? Huh, cool." Keigo stated. Another hand was going to be called until his hand shot up once again.

"No, it's not dyed, it's my natural hair color." Naruto quickly said, this time letting out a little annoyance in his tone.

That strangely answered Keigo's question since he slowly lowered his hand, and surprisingly the rest of the other students lowered theirs as well.

He really should've included these facts in his introduction…

"Alright, since no one else has any other questions for Uzumaki-san we'll begin class now. Go ahead and take a seat next to Kurosaki." Misato told Naruto.

The blonde nodded and made his way to his desk and sat down before taking out a notebook to jot down anything useful from her lecture.

As soon as he stared down at the blank white pages and heard Misato start talking, he could only think one simple thought.

 _'Kami, I hate school…'_

* * *

(Karakura High School – Classroom – Lunch Period)

"Hey, where're you going?" Ichigo called out to Naruto who was heading towards the door.

Naruto glanced over his shoulder. "I saw a soda machine outside at the entrance that caught my eye and I've been mentally committed to get something since. Watch my bag!" He ordered before continuing his trek with his simple mission in mind.

"Don't you already have something to drink in the lunch you packed?" Ichigo questioned.

"Mentally committed!" Naruto retorted without looking back as he disappeared from sight into the hallway.

Ichigo stared at the doorway for a second before rolling his eyes. "Whatever." He said dismissively.

"Aw, and I wanted to talk to him…" Orihime lightly whined with a pout.

With everyone now gathering around a certain area of desks to talk and eat with each other, Ichigo said, "He'll be back in a little bit."

Ichigo then glanced at Naruto's bag sitting on his desk and was about to grab it until Keigo suddenly swooped in front of him and retrieved it himself.

"What're you doing?" Tatsuki asked from next to Orihime.

"Hey, he's the one that ditched on some 'getting to know him' time, so I figured we might find out a little bit about him from his notebook!" He said with a devious smile as he tried to keep Naruto's bag out of Ichigo's reach.

"Why his notebook?" Mizuiro probed.

"I saw him doodling some stuff earlier, but I couldn't see what." Keigo quickly said while he rummaged through the shinobi's belongings, going as far as keeping Ichigo at bay with his foot stretched outward at his chest.

It wasn't hard to believe that they were garnering attention from those still in the class with Keigo kicking Ichigo away while the latter was trying his best not to give in to his temper. In fact, all attention was now on them.

"Stop being a prick and just give me his bag!" Ichigo demanded, approaching the decision on whether or not he should send a punch towards Keigo's head.

"Too late!" Keigo yelled out victoriously as he pulled out the notebook and started flipping the pages in search for anything interesting.

It didn't take long to find some of the notes that the blonde took at the very first page onward, although after a quick look over he saw that Naruto didn't write much and probably got bored pretty quickly, which brought his view towards some of the doodles that the blonde drew.

"And here we are!" Keigo exclaimed while examining the small pictures before humming in an intrigued tone. "Huh, he's actually pretty good."

"Really?" Tatsuki inquired before grabbing the book and looking at the drawings herself from where she sat.

Naruto's privacy didn't matter at this point, apparently.

"A fox?" Tatsuki muttered as a she saw a regular little fox with nine tails mostly drawn on the side of one page. It had the outline of the body and tails, but there wasn't much detail, only a few little bits inserted to show it had narrowed eyes and some tufts of fur spiking out from parts of its coat.

"That's not bad. He did say he practiced his calligraphy a little so maybe that carried on to drawing?" Mizuiro stated from his spot behind Tatsuki's shoulder where the others were gathered at as well to get a peek, even Ichigo because his efforts were pretty much pointless at this point.

"Maybe," Keigo said before grabbing the notebook back and looking at another drawing on the page, "Now let's see what else there is…well, that's a weird rabbit."

"Rabbit?" A feminine voice suddenly asked from out of nowhere next to Keigo's ear, making him jump and nearly shout in surprise.

"Don't do that!" Keigo exclaimed as he saw the source of the voice.

It was Kuchiki Rukia, a transfer student that joined their class a few days prior.

Without responding, Rukia quickly snatched the notebook from Keigo's hand and looked at the picture that tempted her interest.

It was a small bunny that was drawn on a bit of the cartoonish and chibi side. It was standing on its hind legs, had its little paws spread out into the air, noticeably had angry and blank eyes with a vertical line on its forehead, had its mouth open wide as if yelling a challenge while wearing a high-collared kimono with tomoe that resembled a comma running down it, and strangely had two horns pointed up from its head and long hair that reached its feet.

After a thorough examination of the supposed villainous rabbit, all Rukia could say was-

"Cute…" She whispered.

"I wanna see, I wanna see!" Orihime and a girl with short brown hair by the name of Ogawa Michiru yelled in unison as they suddenly flanked both sides of Rukia's shoulders.

They obviously didn't care that it was supposed to be an evil character since they were looking at it in silent admiration just like Rukia.

After absorbing the sight of her favorite animal and completely ignoring the words 'Suck it, Sai!' that had arrows pointed to each respective picture, Rukia turned the page to see a drawing she didn't expect.

The upper body of the creature was shaded in as if it was jumping out of the page with its long arm and pointed fingers outreached to grab whatever poor victim dared to view it. With its pitch-black skinny body and white snarling face resembling a mask, there was no doubt of this monster's true identity.

 _'A hollow?'_ Rukia thought in surprise, barely showing it by the slight widening of her eyes.

"What's that supposed to be?" Orihime asked.

"It's scary…" Michiru muttered in slight discomfort.

"What is?" Ichigo asked before leaning over and catching a peek as well.

It only took a second for him to widen his eyes before meeting an understanding glance with Rukia.

Behind the group and standing next to the classroom's third floor windows were three other girls. The first had long black hair, a tiny mole under her left eye, and a small open book in her hand. The second had short curly brown hair and a uniform only slightly more unbuttoned than the norm. The third had short red hair and wore red framed glasses.

These three were Kunieda Ryo, Natsui Mahana, and Honsho Chizuru.

"Just a day in and that Naruto guy is already having his privacy violated." Ryo offhandedly commented while she continued to read.

Mahana, with arms crossed, only shrugged. "What'd you expect with these guys, especially Keigo?"

"Maybe mister whiskers will get back early and cause a scene? That'd be fun to see." Chizuro cheekily said while casually resting her arm on Mahana's shoulder.

"Don't jinx it, it just might happen." Mahana replied.

"C'mon! Nothing exciting really ever happens around here!" Chizuro dramatically exclaimed.

"What about a truck crashing through Ichigo's house?" Ryo retorted as she turned a page.

Chizuro seemed to think to herself for a second before nodding admittedly. "Well, besides that," She started before walking towards the window and spreading her arms into the air, "But still, this place lacks excitement!" She said before looking down and muttering, "I think I might've spoken too soon."

Intrigued, the other two walked up next to her and looked where her vision was focused on. Down below near the entrance was Naruto looking over the choices that the vending machine had to offer, but that wasn't what grabbed their attention. What had their notice was the small group of male students walking up behind him.

"Uh, guys?" Chizuro called over her shoulder towards Ichigo and everyone else who were all taking turns looking at the blonde's notebook.

"Yeah?" Tatsuki responded as she was unpacking her lunch.

"You all might want to come look at this." The redhead stated.

Within seconds the group of friends all walked up and got their own spots, along with some of the other students that were curious as well.

"Hey, isn't that-" Keigo started, but was cut off by Ichigo.

"Reiichi." Ichigo finished.

"Guess his suspension ended recently." Keigo deduced.

"And you know exactly what he's going to do, right?" Mizuiro asked Ichigo.

Ichigo nodded. "Nothing will ever change about that guy."

Chad silently started to make his way out of the classroom, but was quickly stopped by Ichigo which got the tall young man to look at him questionably.

"Don't, let's see what happens." Ichigo said.

"Aren't you going to go help him?" Keigo asked the two known fighters.

"Not yet. Trust me, I'm pretty sure Naruto can handle himself."

"How do you know that?" Orihime asked in concern.

Thinking back to Naruto throwing his dad into a wall and even the mysterious hollow picture that was still adding questions to his mind, Ichigo said, "I just do."

"Hope you're right, because it's about to be natural blondie versus wannabe blondie and friends." Keigo said while looking intently at the scene outside just like everyone else.

The ones paying the most rapt attention were Ichigo and Rukia who shared a small glance before looking back to Naruto who was now being confronted.

 _'Let's see what you got.'_ Ichigo thought.

* * *

(Karakura High School – Front Entrance)

"Decision, decisions…" Naruto muttered to himself with his hand rubbing his chin in thought.

There were so many kinds of beverages to choose from that his head could barely process it. Back home it was so much simpler since there wasn't much to pick from, but simply having so much variety made him rethink every final decision that he was previously sure he was going to make.

"Alright, maybe that one? No…" He continued to whisper to himself before he felt multiple presences approach him. It was pretty easy to feel that they wanted something to do with him, so he stopped his decision-making journey to turn halfway to see those near him.

"Uh, can I help you?" The blonde asked the person in front of the group of five.

"You new around here?" The young man with very noticeable bleached hair and eyebrows, three earrings in his left ear, and a ring on his lower lip asked.

"Yeah, does it matter?" Naruto replied with a raised brow.

"I guess I can't blame you if you didn't know, but I'm the only one around here that can have this look." He combed his fingers through his bleached hair. "So I expect that you'll dye your hair back to whatever it was by tomorrow; right, friend?" He said with an arrogant smirk.

Naruto looked unimpressed.

 _'Wow, this is kinda pathetic.'_ He thought.

 _ **"** **Then why don't you put the poor fool out of his misery? Maybe rough him up a bit to get the point across to him and any other idiots that might have a stupid idea? Plus, it'll be something to sate my boredom."**_ Kurama stated.

 _'Nah, that would be messed up to put a ninja against a stupid kid that doesn't even know what he's dealing with.'_

"And I would've preferred that you got rid of those stupid tattoos, but that'd be asking too much. I am a charitable guy after all." Reiichi haughtily said.

Naruto's eyes narrowed.

 _'Alright, this idiot just lost his freebee.'_

Maintaining his demeanor, Naruto calmly said, "One, this is my natural hair color. Two, I'm not your friend. Three, these are birthmarks, not tattoos. Four, who are you? And five, do you enjoy fishing?"

Now gaining a slightly more impatient look that was copied by his companions, Reiichi responded with, "Oshima Reiichi, and what the hell is this about fishing?"

"Y'know, fishing. Look." Naruto replied with a shrug before holding his two closed fists forward, the left's palm facing himself while the right faced the group.

Ever so slowly Naruto starting rotating his right fist as if he was reeling a fishing rod which in turn gradually caused the middle finger on his left hand to rise to full mast.

"See? Fishing!" Naruto cheerfully said with his foxy grin.

He was the only one smiling.

Making a decision in his head and snarling at Naruto, Reiichi proclaimed his new intentions.

"I was just gonna let you go, but now you're gonna be lucky if you leave here conscious, you cocky bastard!" Reiichi yelled angrily.

Naruto lowered his hands. "You weren't hugged enough as a kid, were you?" Naruto blandly replied.

After growling to himself one more time, he looked back at his average looking underlings and nudged his head to the shinobi's direction.

Getting the message, the four other delinquents started to charge.

The first guy to reach him tried to send a sloppy punch at Naruto's face, but the trained ninja merely side-stepped and gave him a very light, at least for his standards, kick to the abdomen which sent him lurching harshly on the ground and coughing profusely as he tried to hold in his breakfast.

 _'Alright, probably gotta hold back a little more…'_ Naruto noted sheepishly.

Turning his attention towards the next two that were closing in, he saw that they hesitated a bit from seeing their friend go down so easily, hesitation that opened up their already poor guard even more.

That's why it was easy for him to grab both of their fists with each hand before crossing them in front of him, making them hit the sides of their heads against each other. All they could do was fall to the ground while groaning and holding their aching craniums.

After making sure they weren't going to get back into the little skirmish, Naruto boringly looked up to see that the final lackey was just standing there indecisively, apparently pondering if rushing in was worth it. With him being the strikingly smallest in stature and muscle tone, Naruto decided to throw him a bone and gave him a shooing gesture to simply leave.

The small guy looked back and forth between Naruto and Reiichi before giving a light bow to both as he suddenly hauled ass back into the school doors.

"Everybody gets one!" Naruto called after him without looking away from Reiichi.

"That's it!" Reiichi shouted as he suddenly withdrew and attached brass knuckles onto his right hand and charged at the blonde.

Naruto only rolled his eyes and waited for him to approach.

When Reiichi was within striking range and sent his first punch, Naruto merely dodged.

This is how it continued for punch upon punch. Nothing connected and with each attempted attack Naruto took another step backwards. He didn't know how long the angry bleach-haired student tried to hit him, but he could tell from the sheen of sweat slowly covering his skin and progressively heavier breaths being taken that he was running low on energy.

 _ **"** **For both of our sakes, just end it already! It's only getting sadder at this point!"**_ Kurama ranted.

Naruto mentally scoffed.

 _'Whatever.'_

After dodging a couple of more punches, Naruto timed his counterattack and leaned to his left while holding his right leg out.

With Reiichi's desperate haymaker forcing him forward, he simply tripped over his adversary's outstretched limb, causing him to tumble forward and surprisingly, to him, slam head first into the vending machine that Naruto was looking at moments prior.

At least he wasn't surprised for long since the hard impact that left a sizable dent was enough to knock him out cold.

"And there we go." Naruto muttered in finality before walking up to Reiichi's unmoving body and taking the brass knuckles from his possession and pocketing them. "Don't need these things being handed down to the next heir of the stupid. This was such a pointless fight."

 _Thunk Thunk_

"Never mind!" Naruto lightly cheered when he saw that two cans popped out of the machine, supposedly from the hit it took that rattled it enough to give away some spoils.

Once he picked up the beverages, Naruto said, "The vending machine gods are always watching." He nodded sagely.

With two drinks in hand Naruto turned towards the entrance, but was stopped when he saw a female student just standing there with her jaw open wide and some money in hand, seemingly wanting to use the vending machine as well before the little fight started.

They stared at each other for a few seconds before Naruto spoke up.

"Um, did you see all that?"

She nodded fairly quickly, obviously trying not to evoke his wrath.

"And you saw that they started it, right?"

Another nod.

"Alright then." Naruto looked at one of the two cans in hand. "Hey, do you want this can of juice, maybe save you some money?"

She blinked, but eventually gave an almost unnoticeable nod.

Naruto walked up to her and gave her hesitant hand the drink. "There, um, have a nice day!" He exclaimed as he walked back inside.

The student looked at her little gift, then the pile of unmoving and groaning students, and immediately ran back inside.

She wasn't going to be mistaken for being a part of this!

* * *

(Karakura High School – Classroom)

"Well…that was interesting." Tatsuki commented as she and the others kept staring at the area that Naruto just exited.

"Uh, Ichigo?" Keigo asked.

"Yeah?"

"Did you know he could fight?"

The teen shrugged. "Had a hunch he could."

Tatsuki crossed her arms. "Definitely can from that little show. I think he could even do a lot more. It looked like he wasn't even trying." The experienced female fighter said intrigued.

"It was nice of him to give that girl a drink, though." Orihime happily commented.

Ryo nudged Chizuro's arm. "Still think nothing happens around here?"

"Well, with mister whiskers being here, I guess that things will be a little livelier, especially if he hangs around those guys." Chizuro said gesturing to Ichigo and his male friends.

Ichigo gave her a deadpan look. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Nothing," She started before getting a predatory look as she locked in on her usual target, hands put up in a squeezing motion, "Hime, come here a second!" She told Orihime who was looking at her in confusion.

"Don't even think about it." Tatsuki simply threatened the outspoken lesbian.

Suddenly everyone started to hear a jaunty whistle getting closer and closer to their classroom.

The source was Naruto as he came into sight and walked back towards his desk while sipping an orange soda can that had a smiling and winking cartoon orange labeled on it.

When he was about to reach his seat he saw that everyone was looking at him in complete silence.

He paused, took the time to look behind him for anything worthy of interest, and then down at his clothes. Both actions didn't reveal anything that required attention.

"What? Is there something on my face?" Naruto asked.

Ichigo waved him over to the window while Mizuiro and Keigo moved out of the way to let the blonde get a look outside.

Once he made it to the window he saw that the four he defended himself from were in the process of finally getting up.

Naruto then looked to the others and said, "That was totally self-defense."

"Of course it was, but, uh, you don't have any desire to possibly use that defense into an offense against us, right?" Keigo asked with a nervous smile.

Naruto looked at him. "No, I don't see why I would." He answered with a quirked eyebrow.

Keigo then happily wrapped an arm around the shinobi's shoulder. "Then welcome to our school, buddy! I'm Asano Keigo!"

And so began Naruto's introductions to everyone else.

They were all small hellos and handshakes, although a little more enthusiastic from Orihime in particular. He was just as kind back to them and it seemed like they were going to get along nicely.

Once that was all done, they were finally going to actually take use of their lunch period to eat. Naruto, though, paused when he saw that his bag was left plopped on a random seat with his notebook sitting open on someone else's desk.

"Alright, who messed with this?" Naruto said holding up his notebook.

Immediately everyone pointed to a nervous Keigo.

Naruto looked at him questionably.

"Um…I just wanted to get to know my future friend better?"

The shinobi's stare continued.

"I valiantly tried to guard it, but was eventually overwhelmed?"

Naruto didn't even blink.

"Please don't hurt me…"

* * *

(Karakura Town – Streets – Afternoon)

The rest of the school day went by without any other kind of excitement, well, except for Naruto who had a little fun scaring Keigo a little. It's not like he was actually angry since there wasn't anything important written down and they wouldn't even get what he drew anyway. When asked why he drew such things he just called the reasons behind the unique pictures 'spontaneous creativity.'

Creativity he was proud of by the way. If he had the chance he'd rub his new little talent in Sai's face.

Fuinjutsu practice really improved his penmanship.

Now Naruto, Ichigo, Tatsuki, Orihime, Chad, Keigo, and Mizuiro were all walking home together since they lived in the same general direction. However, after walking about halfway and having random conversations, Naruto suddenly said he had to split off.

"Where are you going?" Ichigo asked.

"Just taking care of a little business. It's the first step in my independence, and I'm not going to live at your house forever." Naruto said as he waited for the signal to let him cross the street.

"And that is?" Tatsuki questioned.

"A job. Later!" Naruto called out his goodbye and separated from everyone else.

As they all saw him walk away Keigo said, "What kind of job do you think he's gonna get?"

Ichigo shrugged. "No idea. Hopefully it isn't too out of the way that he'll get lost again. I really don't want any nagging from my family."

"Not just your dad?" Mizuiro asked as they all started walking again.

"Yep, Yuzu's starting to get a little motherly over him, so she'd probably get annoyed at me too."

"And Karin?" Tatsuki added.

"Who knows, maybe she'd give me some sarcastic remark about how I messed up or something."

"And who knows how your dad would exactly react. It's a surprise every time." Mizuiro said with a slight chuckle.

The orange-haired teen sighed.

"Yeah…" He muttered.

* * *

(Unagiya Shop – Afternoon)

"Go ahead, say it." A feminine voice ordered.

Naruto sighed and spoke in a bored tone.

"Hello and welcome. Cheap. Fast. Safe. That's Unagiya…and no, this isn't an eel shop, so find an actual one and shove that eel up your-"

His sentence was stopped by a whack at the back of his head.

"Do you want to lose your job already?!" The female yelled.

Naruto rubbed the spot where he was hit and cast a narrowed look back to the source of the jab.

It was a fair-skinned and noticeably attractive woman maybe around her late twenties. She had a white shirt with long purple sleeves that had 'Unagi' written across the chest, tight black pants held up by a belt, black gloves, black boots, and a brown cap with googles wrapped around it. Her raven-black hair was styled in a ponytail that was held by a purple scrunchy with her front bangs parted to the left side of her face.

This was the owner of the Unagiya Shop, Unagiya Ikumi.

Her business was a jack-of-all-trades service that did all kinds of random odd jobs as long as the pay and desired work was reasonable. With her technically being the only employee until his arrival, she did things like picking weeds, walking dogs, dusting shelves, moving furniture, etc.

Basically, it was D-rank mission central…

This place was the only business that would even really give him a chance and was acceptable in his eyes. Other options he checked out before were either overqualified for him, said he didn't fit the 'image' of the kind of employee they wanted, or simply wasn't something he wanted to do.

Standing outside a small fish market wearing an octopus costume and waving at customers all day?

Yeah, fuck that.

So he was pretty lucky that he found this place with an old 'help wanted' sign in the window, even though the work itself nearly drove him away. When he addressed that he was interested, Ikumi certainly didn't really care who he was or how he looked, as long as he could get the job done. With him being experienced in this line of work from what he told her and being a healthy and strong young man, something she tested when she made him move some of her heavy stuff as some sort of trial, she hired him.

And now she was just testing his public relation skills in case someone walked in or called when she wasn't there.

"Do you want to lose the only employee actually interested in working for you?" Naruto retorted.

They glared lightly at each other until Ikumi sighed and rested her hand against her eyes.

"I really shouldn't have said I was desperate here…" She muttered.

"Yep, so now you're stuck with me, Ikumi-chan." Naruto rubbed in with a cheesy smile.

She suddenly felt like hitting him again. "Ikumi- _san_ , brat, but whatever, we'll work on the slogan later. I'm going to put you right to work before it gets too dark. I'm not wasting any of my time where we could be getting something done just to get you settled in." She then pointed to a cardboard box set on a nearby table. "That's where all of the job orders are at, so hurry up and get to it!"

"Yeah, yeah." Naruto muttered before going up to the box and looking down at the pile of ticket orders all jumbled together.

"You're not very organized, are you?" He questioned.

"Is complaining part of your job?" She asked rhetorically with arms crossed under her chest.

"Would I get paid more?" The shinobi replied.

"Just pick something, smartass." Ikumi said with a shake of her head.

"Alrighty then." Naruto said before analyzing random tickets until he opted to just grab a handful and head towards the door.

"Wait, that's way too much work! You were only supposed to get-"

"Don't worry, the quicker everything's done, the more money and more opportunities we'll get from returning customers, right? Later, Ikumi-chan!" He said before he quickly went out the door, semi-slamming it.

Ikumi hopelessly still had an outstretched hand out in Naruto's direction before she sighed heavily to herself again.

"I swear that kid's going to give me gray hair." She uttered in annoyance.

She then went to get her last job of the day from the pile and picked up one at random.

"Let's see…cleaning dog crap from Mr. Kitagawa's yard…damn it."

Why didn't Naruto accidentally grab that one and save her some trouble?

* * *

(Unagiya Shop – A Few Hours Later)

"Where the hell is he?" Ikumi muttered to herself, tapping her arm with her finger impatiently.

She had gotten done with her job a little while ago and had been waiting for her blonde employee's arrival back from whatever he did ever since. The sun was going down and her patience was wearing thin.

She swore that if he made her business look bad and lost any of her regulars, she'd gladly hunt him down and intimately introduce her boot with his ass.

And it'd be a short hunt too since he listed his current residence on his application form.

Eventually, just as she was about to blow a mental gasket the front door to her home/shop opened up with Naruto walking in with his hands in his pockets.

"Took you long enough!" She exclaimed.

Naruto didn't bat an eyelash and calmly said, "Well, you didn't want me to do a crappy job, did you?"

Ikumi rolled her eyes. "Whatever, so what job did you end up picking?" She asked with her hands on her hips.

Without saying anything, Naruto only gave her his foxy smile before taking both hands out of his pockets. His right held all of the tickets with the signatures from all of the people that called in the jobs while his left held checks and envelopes filled with the appropriate money for each corresponding job.

He didn't have time to react to Ikumi suddenly ripping everything from his grasp and immediately started looking everything over with an expression of doubt and amazement.

"Satisfied?" Naruto smugly remarked.

"H-how were you able to do all of this?! This would've taken me at least a week!"

He smirked. "I have my ways."

Ah, the benefits of being a ninja. Doing all of this work was simple, really. All he had to do was find a vacant area like an alley nearby and create a single clone for every job. Then to avoid being discovered he and his clones all used Jiraiya's transparency jutsu to safely head to their assigned addresses.

Despite its originally perverted use, it was a damn good jutsu to have, especially among all of these regular people that weren't ninja savvy.

Once they all arrived to their designated places, of course with the help of his phone, they would find a safe place to reappear and proceed to do their work. Next time he'd be wearier of what tasks he took because if more than one of the clients lived close enough to one another, then two of the clones risk being seen near each other. Thankfully there wasn't any time stamp required on the tickets, only signatures.

Unless she were to check the time with the clients themselves…oh well, he liked taking risks.

"And if you doubt me, call up everyone and confirm it yourself. I did that all with my own hands. Oh, and just a heads up, I don't think I'm going to want to take any more jobs from Kawagishi-baa-san. I don't know if she's somehow really stealthy in her old age, but I swear she pinched my rear while I was watering her flowers..." He said with a mental shiver.

Ikumi kept on switching between looking at the money, orders, and then Naruto before eventually deciding she didn't really care or want to know how he did it. She wasn't going to question him and risk losing this kind of work effort. If he could do this regularly, she'd have a lot less to worry about and more income to take in.

Yep, this young man was a keeper.

Now with a sudden toothy smile plastered on her pretty face, Ikumi suddenly tossed all of the materials in her hands onto the same table from earlier and wrapped an arm around Naruto's neck, pulling him into a close side hug that forced his head to rest against the side of her breast.

"Why don't I treat you to some tea and snacks to commemorate success on your first day?" She exclaimed cheerfully and proceeded to drag him to the kitchen.

Awkwardly walking with her, Naruto said, "Uh, no thanks, I got to get back home soon before-"

"Don't be so modest! I'm sure whoever you're going back to will understand! Now c'mon and relax!"

"Do I get a choice in this?"

"Nope!"

"…'Kay."

* * *

(Unagiya Shop – One Hour Later)

"I really should be going now." Naruto said and stood up from his spot at the kitchen table.

Finishing her last cup of tea, Ikumi said, "Alright then. See you again tomorrow when you get out of school, and if you work like you did today expect more pay and free days."

That was the benefit of her business. If they were to keep on completing jobs at this rate, then there would be much more money and less work to do, well, at least for her. She had a small feeling that she was taking advantage of Naruto's mysterious working ethic, but when she voiced her thoughts Naruto waved her off saying that it wasn't a big deal and as long as he gets his rightful share he'd be fine.

"Sounds good. Goodnight." Naruto said and was about to leave until some small footsteps were heard, followed by a door near the kitchen opening up and revealing a small boy around nine or ten years of age.

This was Ikumi's son, Kaoru, and he looked like he just got up from a nap because he was rubbing his drowsy looking eyes and his black hair was all scraggly. From what he was told earlier, Kaoru was at a friend's house playing when he was out on the job and came back and went to sleep in his room before he finished.

"Mom, I'm hungry…" He drawled in a light whiny voice.

"Aw, c'mere and mommy will get you something." Ikumi said in an overly sweet voice that Naruto never suspected would be said from the normally tough-skinned woman, although he only met her today, so he guessed that she probably had different sides to her.

He had to admit that he didn't expect to see how she looked when he turned back to her.

She was the embodiment of a stereotypical loving mother with her somehow quickly putting on an apron and taking off her cap, gloves, and boots without his notice. She was bending over with her arms open waiting for her son to approach her for a hug while having a very affectionate smile on her face.

How many more adults that switched personalities instantly was he going to meet?

"Who are you?" Kaoru asked suspiciously as he finally noticed the blonde's presence.

"Sweetie, this is Naruto. He's going to be working with me from now on." Ikumi answered kindly.

The little boy looked the shinobi up and down, obviously not impressed. After a few moments of silence, Kaoru stuck his tongue out at the blonde and pulled his left eyelid down in a mocking gesture.

"Don't even think of getting close to my mom just because she's pretty." He said before making a continuous 'bleh' sound at him.

Naruto was calm on the outside, but inwardly he was getting more and more annoyed. He already had to deal with this crap with Konohamuru, even though he mellowed out after some time spent with him, so he wasn't going to treat this brat any different. Obviously he couldn't give him a little love tap to the head, otherwise Ikumi would possibly kill him with her surprising strength that he felt on the back of his own head earlier, so he figured he would go for the more psychological route.

"Y'know, kid, I was supposed to leave earlier, but your mom enjoyed my company so much that she insisted that I stay for a while, so we might already be getting more closer than you think." He said with a shit-eating grin.

Kaoru's jaw dropped and didn't really know what to say back.

Ikumi on the other hand was trying so hard not to break her sweet mother façade and tightly clenched her slightly shaking fist a little while her brow twitched just as much.

Naruto continued.

"But I guess I've overstayed my welcome, so I'll go home now. Bye, Ikumi-chan! See you again tomorrow!" He called cheerfully over his shoulder.

Kaoru's head snapped to his mother who was giving the blonde a small wave in goodbye. If he looked closer he might've noticed her hand was twitching, but of course with his panicking mind he didn't.

 _'Why didn't she correct him?!'_ The young boy desperately thought to himself, referring to Naruto calling his mother 'chan.'

His head suddenly went back towards Naruto's direction when the front door closed from his exit.

 _'What is going on?!'_

* * *

(Karakura Town – Streets – Evening)

After his small victory, Naruto started walking back to the Kurosaki household. He could've easily just used the transparency jutsu to allow him to speedily travel along the rooftops, but he felt like having a nice relaxing walk to think to himself.

It had been a weird day for him, at least by his standards. It felt weird because this is what he imagined it was like to be a simple civilian, and he sure as hell wasn't that. It just wasn't normal. Normal for him was usually training and fighting for his life, well, until coming here.

That's not entirely true, though, now that he thought back to that fight he had in the park earlier in the week. He still had no real idea what that thing was, but it mentioned that he had a lot of spiritual power, among other drabble he didn't understand, so maybe that just meant the spiritual half of his chakra?

So did that mean anything or anyone with a noticeable amount of spiritual power was attracted to these things? Did that mean his massive amount of chakra contributed to being able to see spirits in this world?

Thankfully he hadn't bumped into any since the first, and he'd like to keep it that way, but was that monster technically a ghost too?

Well, there goes a shiver down his spine at the thought. He was so used to facing weird things like that that he didn't really think that through…sometimes he couldn't help being a little slow…

Well, if there was chance that the damn monster was some sort of ghost, then maybe he really should've mentioned this to at least Ichigo before? He was debating it all week already, but didn't really know how to explain it. He obviously couldn't mention the whole being a ninja thing, so maybe he could've just said that it was dangerous and that he simply got away in time?

He suddenly stopped walking.

Wait.

If there was a possibility that this thing was attracted to spiritual power, power he guessed gave him the ability to see the dead, then would that mean…that…Ichigo…?

Holy shit, he _was_ slow sometimes…

As if responding to his thoughts, Naruto suddenly felt a wave of the same negative energy that he experienced before being attacked in the park. It was clearly nearby, but thankfully wasn't in the exact direction of the Kurosaki household, but it was still close enough to make him worry.

A few grunts were suddenly heard in his head.

 _ **"** **Wha- again?"**_ Kurama grunted out sleepily.

" _Yeah, I'm going to have to check it out. What if it could be hurting someone?"_ Naruto mentally replied.

 _ **"** **Go on then. Kick its ass. You should be better prepared this time."**_

Naruto nodded and quickly ran into a dark alley to avoid any risk of being seen using any shinobi techniques.

Once he saw he was in the clear, he was going to use the transparency jutsu to hide his physical appearance, but before he could, something else revealed its presence.

"Meow."

Naruto snapped his head to the entrance of the alley.

Sitting there calmly in what little moonlight was shining down on the sidewalk was a black cat looking at him with its head tilted to the side.

The blonde let out a breath in relief and chuckled to himself at the false alarm.

He met the cat's eyes and jokingly held his right index finger over his lips before he shushed at it.

"Keep this a secret, okay?" He whispered playfully.

In the next instant he made the appropriate handseal and disappeared from view, now beginning his invisible trek by jumping onto the roof of the nearest building and heading to the location where he felt another one of those monsters.

As the cat watched this all transpire and felt that the blonde was gone, it suddenly grew a small smirk. Then in a deep-toned voice it spoke.

"This is interesting…"

* * *

(Omake – Wonders of a New World)

"And you're saying that there are literally hundreds of thousands of these things?" Naruto asked in bewilderment as he continued to look at the screen.

"Yep, maybe even millions, and there's always more being made nonstop! Cool, right?" Keigo asked with a smile.

"Yeah…" Naruto muttered as his mind went back to focusing on the buttons he was pressing.

It was a Saturday afternoon and Keigo was bored. So, in a stroke of genius, he invited Naruto over to his house after asking if he had to work or not.

After a little coaxing from Keigo, specifically saying that he was going to blow the new student's mind with what he had to show him, Naruto was convinced to hang out for an hour or two at the Asano residence.

"You'll get over it after a while, trust me."

And of course Ichigo was invited as well to witness this experience.

But what was this amazing thing that Keigo wanted to show Naruto?

Video games, of course.

"Quiet, Ichigo. Let him focus!" Keigo said.

Naruto continued to play the game with utmost attention. He didn't really know for sure, but he was pretty positive that he didn't even blink once since he was given the controller for Keigo's console.

This was just surreal to him. Virtual games never really crossed his mind before since he didn't even know things like this existed in this world. Well, he sorta did when he saw a game category among the apps he was looking at before, but his mind was mostly clouded with ramen-related possibilities and he never really got back to it since then.

But now that Keigo brought it back to his attention, he had to admit…

…He fucking loved it.

It was just so amusing for some reason! Having the control to determine the fate of the playable aspects on screen was just fun! With the interesting art, characters, and music on full display, he couldn't help but give the game his full undivided attention.

"Jump the turtle." Ichigo offhandedly commented while he watched and sipped his water bottle.

"I'll jump the turtle when it's time to jump the goddamn turtle!" Naruto snapped without taking his eyes off the screen.

Ichigo was slightly taken aback by the outburst while Keigo was wiping an imaginary tear from his eye.

"His first nerd rage," Keigo sniffed, "I'm so proud…"

This continued on for a while and, to Ichigo and keigo's surprise, Naruto was actually getting pretty good. If he kept up his effort, he might have a chance to get close to Keigo's high score.

Alas, it was for naught since out of nowhere the television screen suddenly shut off, leaving it blank with only the reflections of a shocked Naruto, an intrigued Keigo, and a frowny Ichigo showing.

"Princess, no!" Naruto shouted fearfully with an outstretched hand towards the screen.

"What happened?" Ichigo asked.

"Don't know." Keigo replied.

"There, now I have your attention." A feminine voice said.

From their spots on the couch, the three young men turned their heads behind them and saw a slightly older girl standing next the kitchen counter with the TV remote in her hand, obviously showing she was responsible for the abrupt stop in their gaming.

This was Keigo's older sister, Mizuho, and notably Karakura High School's student body president. She had brown hair like her brother, but hers was set in a ponytail with long bangs hanging around both sides of her face. With her being at the comfort of her own home, she was casually wearing a white t-shirt, black shorts, and short white socks.

"What are you doing?" Keigo asked his older sister.

She crossed her arms. "You know the drill, go get me some juice from the vending machine outside and I'll give back your TV privileges."

"Come on! I have guests here, don't be like this now!" Keigo whined.

"Guests? More than one? I only see Kurosaki here." Mizuho replied as she pointed at the two boys.

"What do you mean, there's also Naru- where did he go?" Keigo asked in surprised confusion as he saw that Naruto was no longer sitting next to him. The only indication that he was there was the controller that was left behind and the main door being wide open.

"Did he leave without us noticing?" Keigo muttered in amazement.

Ichigo shrugged.

"Whether he left or not doesn't matter. What does matter is that you still haven't left to get me my-" Mizuho said, but was quickly cut off by Naruto suddenly rushing back in with his arms full of around a dozen cans.

The blonde immediately went up to Mizuho and sloppily placed all of the cans onto the counter, forcing him to desperately catch a few that threatened to roll off.

"There, I didn't know what you wanted, so I got them all! Enjoy!" Naruto quickly sputtered out before grabbing the remote from her surprised hand and went back to his spot to continue his game.

Ichigo and Keigo stared at the blonde for a few moments before shrugging at each other and went back to watching Naruto play.

Mizuho herself, though, was left stunned silent as she repeatedly glanced at the juice cans then to Keigo's new friend.

' _Did he just get all of this in less than a minute?'_ She thought to herself.

After letting the weird moment pass, she mentally shrugged it off and grabbed one of the cans, audibly opening it and taking a sip as she headed back to her room.

' _Wonder how blondie would look like with a shaved head?'_

* * *

 **AN: I hope you enjoyed the chapter! If you didn't…well…sorry?**

 **Sorry this took a while to get out, but you know how school is, right? It can be a major pain in the ass sometimes, and that is why I shall never know exactly when updates will happen for either of my stories. This was actually planned to at least get out last week, but as you've seen…yeah…**

 **I know this wasn't action packed, but I felt all of this was necessary, and it's just the way I write.**

 **Welp, thanks for reading and for the awesome support! And if you'd be so kind, please tell me your thoughts about this chapter. I'm always striving to improve.**

 **Have a nice day, lovelies!**

 **Later!**


	3. What a Wonderful World

**AN: Holy shit-biscuit, it's been a long time! With that being said, along with the time period of absolutely nothing going on in some months on my end *cough*, let's just get to the chapter!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto or Bleach.**

* * *

 **Chapter 3: What a Wonderful World**

The shadowed buildings flew by as Naruto hurried along the rooftops. With blue eyes focused forward he barely registered the lit up windows and signs that showered Karakura in its artificial glow, instead mentally locking himself onto the dark presence he was racing toward.

With every little sprint, leap, and landing he was engaging in, the blonde was progressively prepping his mind for what was to come.

 _'No distractions. Stay calm. Take care of whatever's there quickly. Make stealthy getaway. Celebrate with ramen.'_ He thought simply with just enough time to spot his destination as he was preparing to make one last jump on the roof of an apartment complex. His target became obvious when a two-story building with a gaping hole blown through a wall on its second floor came within sight, and through that opening was the same kind of beast he had slain during the night of his arrival. This time the creature had a serpent-like body with a full head of dark and scraggly hair along with its own skull-like mask. Both arms were crimson from a little past the shoulders all the way to the fingertips while the rest of the body from torso to tail was a dark gray. Just like the first there was a clean hole right through its chest.

These details only went through his mind for the shortest of instances as he locked his sight onto the captive held within his large grip.

 _'Wait, isn't that- oh shit, Orihime?!'_

A clear new addition to his self-appointed objective in mind and the beginnings of adrenaline coursing through his veins is what came upon him as he made the final jump on the edge of the rooftop.

* * *

It just wasn't going to end any time soon, was it? Granted, he wasn't given an exact timeline, but he still had his hopes.

If it wasn't, then he was positive it was going to be the death of him soon enough. What he was hoping to be a temporary fill-in already started to feel like a lifetime commitment with how fast things have been progressing lately, and he was sure this was only the tip of the spiritual iceberg.

Spirits.

How much deeper into their world was he going to fall?! Seriously, he didn't ask for this! Did his past self fuck up and cut in front of a voodoo priest in line at a produce market or something?!

At this point he wouldn't doubt it entirely.

Whatever the reasons were, he was silently cursing them as his stunned body was dragging itself off of the unforgiving asphalt that he was slammed into. With blood soaking the middle of his forehead, the crimson liquid trailing down his nose and chin, and seeing a yellow pajama-covered Rukia hovering over his prone body with blurry vision, it was easy to deduce that he wasn't currently in the best of moods.

"Ichigo, wake up!" She shouted into his ear.

The orange-haired teen grunted and held a hand to his injured cranium. "Shut up." He managed to mutter out, clear annoyance held within his tone.

Despite the seriousness of the situation, Rukia still managed to lose her focus for a split second and looked annoyed herself. "Don't talk to me like that!" She semi-shouted before calming down. "Anyway, where are you hurt?" She asked while leaning in to make her own observations.

Ichigo finally got into a crouched position. "That doesn't matter, I'll be fine."

Rukia nodded. "Good, now you need to remember something before getting back to it."

Ichigo glanced to her and gave his full attention.

"That's not Inoue's brother anymore. He's nothing but a monster without a human's heart. Like with him and other hollows you can't show mercy and must kill him without fail." She instructed seriously, well, as seriously as a short girl in bright flannel pajamas could.

Ichigo only answered back with his own stern stare before looking back up to the hole he was blown out of, and he couldn't have gotten back into action sooner because of what he heard next.

 **"I'll kill you!"** He heard the brother-turned-hollow shout, and what made it so grim to him was that it wasn't directed at either Rukia or himself.

A brief shout of exertion escaped his throat as he leaped to the second floor of Inoue's home, his large blade in hand ready to strike however he needed it to. Once he made it to his targeted height he saw Inoue held tight within the hollow's hands, her face filled with rising pain and discomfort with every moment that went by.

Not wasting anymore time Ichigo quickly swung his weapon towards the monster's scaly tail in an effort to switch his focus onto him and off his friend. However, so focused was he was that he didn't notice at the exact same time another participant decided to join the battle.

The same couldn't be said for a once again annoyed Rukia still in the street with no easy way to get to the fight by normal means. It was just another irritating reminder that her powers were drastically low and only a little stronger than an average human; not in a physical sense, but in having reiryoku at all in the gigai she was inhabiting.

As her mind went to calculating how to aid in the skirmish she sensed something closing into the area fast, so fast that if she were the target of this incoming unknown entity she would be helpless to properly defend herself with Ichigo preoccupied with his own fight.

Thankfully that wasn't the case as she saw a quick and vocal blur pass over her head and towards Ichigo's position.

Her eyes widened. _'What…?'_

The substitute Shinigami couldn't react at all as the new presence announced his entrance just before his blade met hollow flesh.

"Dynamic Entr-Ichigo-?!" Naruto shouted in surprise as his outstretched foot was still homing in on the beast's head. With the blonde's surprise at his current roommate's involvement in this whole debacle as well, he accidentally dropped the transparency jutsu.

Time seemed to drastically slow down for both spiky-haired teens as they stared at each other's shocked faces while simultaneously still progressing forward with each attack. If it wasn't for the urgency of the setting, the flabbergasted look on the normally stoic Ichigo's face, along with a shouting and still flying Naruto and his own open-mouthed dumbfounded expression would've certainly made for quite the sight.

Both of their perspectives quickly went back to normal with their attacks hitting home. Ichigo's blade roughly stabbed into his target's biggest appendage while Naruto's opening kick smashed into the monster's face. The attacks stunned the hollow while it roared from both new instances of pain, making him let go of his little sister's chained soul.

Orihime's body fell to the wooden floor with some relief from the squeezing pressure she was previously a victim of. After letting out some coughs and a groan of pain from the rough landing, she glanced up to the creature that was once her beloved sibling as he briefly flailed in agony. Then she glanced to Ichigo as he got done hacking at her brother's tail before turning to the newest surprise of her night.

"Uzumaki-kun?" She whispered in bewilderment as she looked at him with one brown eye open. It wasn't hard to misidentify the newest addition to her class, what with the bright yellow hair and whiskers on his cheeks. She saw how he tumbled from lingering disbelief after his contribution to freeing her before quickly righting himself and sliding close to a wounded and unresponsive Tatsuki. He seemed to notice the tomboy as well since he quickly moved to check her condition before turning around to act as a guard between her and the quickly recovering beast.

She didn't really know what to make of the blonde's arrival, but that wasn't much crazier than this whole situation in general at this point. Everything that's happened in the last few minutes completely blew her normally crazy imagination for a loop. First there was the appearance of some crazy ghost monster thing that made itself known from her teddy bear before attacking her and Tatsuki. Then Ichigo arrived with some strange getup and a large sword in order to block an attack meant for her before he started going at it with his opponent. Next came the revelation that her dead brother was the true identity of the monster and that he was mad because of her lack of prayers for him, himself believing that he was disappearing from her heart only to be replaced by those close to her such as Ichigo and Tatsuki. Now most recently in this short squabble was Naruto aiding Ichigo in defending Tatsuki and herself.

If she were not in this situation she was sure that her mind would've gone into all kinds of different places with the appearances of not one, but two knights in shining armor. Perhaps she would've created tales of other heroism by these two, followed by her and Tasuki slaying a dragon on the side or tag-team fighting aliens in a wrestling ring on pay-per-view, with the match being only available to watch on TV on Earth and Jupiter exclusively, Mars being left out because of a political strife involving a unifying marriage gone weary due to difference of opinions on what color the couple's drapes would be in their galactic home.

Yeah, that would've been nice to dwell on for a good hour or two.

Now, though, her mind went back to thinking about the arrival of Ichigo along with Naruto being added to the mix. Why were they here and how were they able to have capable means of fighting her seemingly powerful brother? She knows Ichigo has fighting experience, but being able to wield such a large blade and show off some weird supernatural abilities like standing on air was ludicrous. The same could sort of be said for Naruto as well since she witnessed him defend himself earlier in the day, but that only seemed like fancy dodging—besides that single kick and grab—more than anything. She didn't know much else about the blonde besides his first extreme encounter with Ichigo and what she got from getting a feel of his personality during the day, but her first impression was that she thought he was a fun person. They talked little during and after school, but he was all smiles like her and easily went along with whatever goofy things she enamored everyone with. Of course none of that could've possibly been accurately linked to him showing up here out of the blue.

Focusing back on the scene as a whole she saw that while her transformed brother was backed away and finally getting over both attacks Ichigo had quickly stepped between herself and her attacker. The black-robed teen was noticeably giving an intense stare periodically at the hollow and Naruto, his blade up and ready to defend at a moment's notice. Naruto spared the oldest Kurosaki sibling a very curious look of his own and noticeably looked him up and down before seeming to say, 'What the hell are you wearing?' with his sapphire eyes.

Oh the irony.

Orihime felt a new tension add itself to the air, and for a second she was scared of what could become of this new situation.

One quick look to Ichigo's protective side-glance and Naruto's rapidly changed expression of focus filled her with relief as she witnessed the blonde spare her a look of assurance as well before he switched to the other male teen. They both held a small glare at one another before Naruto moved his eyes in Tatsuki and Orihime's direction before nodding at the now recovered hollow, his message clear.

Protect them. Deal with the snake. Talk later.

Ichigo understood it well enough as he and Naruto both faced their mutual enemy. The Shinigami still held his sword at the ready while Naruto quickly conjured two kunai from seemingly nothing into each hand in a reverse style for ideal stabbing and slashing.

That only added more weight on the curiosity of those that saw the shinobi do the act, but that would have to be put on the backburner for now.

The tainted spirit monster gave a low snarl and turned towards both the first force of opposition, his right eye as hollow as the creatures' namesake and the left being the only part on his body resembling a human.

 **"Why must you interfere, Kurosaki Ichigo?!"** He wailed before turning his bloody glare towards the still uniform clad blonde. **"And who are you supposed to be?! Some pathetic Shinigami lackey?! Why won't you all understand that Orihime is mine and no one else's! It was me that took care of her! Me! I took her away from our satanic father and whore of a mother and raised her myself! We did just fine by ourselves and I'm not giving her away to anyone, especially you, Kurosaki!"**

Naruto grew more curious about this whole scene. _'Wait, this freaking thing is her brother? How the hell does that work? Damn, she really got all of the good genes from her family.'_

Kurama chose that moment to chime in. _**"We must've missed a serious monologue."**_

And it was on that note that Orihime's brother went on the attack, deciding to target the biggest thorn in his side so far.

"Onii-chan!" Orihime cried out in concern, not wanting her sibling to continue his path of violence and also not wanting Ichigo to be put in more danger.

Ichigo launched forward to meet his foe in the middle of the room and made his blade strike at the huge and gaping maw of the hollow, the blade being wedged between some upper and lower teeth and successfully causing a stalemate.

Naruto quickly jumped up from behind the other male teen after taking a moment to make sure Ichigo was combat capable and proceeded to channel wind chakra into each of his kunai before slashing off his adversary's left arm at the elbow. Blood quickly started to leak out of the stump just like his wounded tail which Naruto quickly cut off halfway as well when he got behind him.

The combined defense and offense from Ichigo and Naruto forced the male Inoue to desperately get out of Ichigo's guard and tried to swipe at the blonde behind him with his right arm. Naruto jumped and dove over the large claw-like hand before rolling on the ground and smoothly getting up to his feet.

Ichigo took his opening and swiped his weapon across his opponent's back. It wasn't a clean shot on the critical point that was the hollow's head, but every little bit to slow him down made the kill shot all the easier in the end.

The hollow wailed again in pain and anger. Glancing at both teens he started to realize he would be worn down sooner than later and most likely wouldn't get the chance to fulfill his goal. A new plan in mind he turned around and threw himself towards the orange-haired Shinigami as fast as he could while seemingly trying to take a bite out of him again.

Ichigo saw him coming and prepared to do the same block as last time, believing that the hollow's repetition was starting to show that the battle was nearing its end in their favor.

What Ichigo didn't expect was for his foe to sideswipe Ichigo's guard instead of going for a full frontal assault. What that resulted in was a forced parry on Ichigo's part while the hollow continued its path to the other side of the room and towards his increasingly frightened sister.

 **"If she won't live for me then she'll just have to die for me instead!"** The deceased Inoue screamed as if the result was inevitable.

"Inoue!" Ichigo shouted, knowing he had little chance to intercept Orihime's brother in time.

The hollow and Shinigami seemed to have forgotten the presence of the other player in this game.

Without missing a beat Naruto quickly used the Kawarimi no Jutsu (Body Replacement Technique) to switch with a piece of rubble next to Orihime before quickly snatching her up and jumping out of the hollow's serpent-like rushing attack.

The blonde landed next to Tatsuki and Orihime's currently soulless body in the quick escape. If Naruto paid any mind to the girl's dual presence and connected spiritual chain then he didn't outwardly show it as he and Orihime watched the attacker continue on to slam into another wall. He created a new hole clear to the outside to match the other and had to hastily use his remaining hand to claw at the wooden floorboards. His sharp fingers dug into the surface and left a rough trail of ragged wood chips in his wake before coming to a halt while hanging off the edge.

Naruto took that time to let Orihime out of his grip and stand on wobbly feet as she tried to find her footing. It took but a second to right herself and glance at Naruto in even more awe. Whatever he just did made her curiosity of him and Ichigo peek even higher if that was even possible, not to mention the speed in which he was able to get her out of the way.

The quick and sudden motion of it all idly reminded her of a rollercoaster, so a small part of her actually thought it was fun.

Wow…maybe he was a superhero like Asano said…did that mean Ichigo was one too?

Of course that thought was quickly quelled as she saw Naruto being joined by Ichigo as they got in front of her and looked like they were going to both go on the offensive this time.

That was until she started to feel something was off all of the sudden. She saw the reason why immediately when she took a glance at her physical body.

"My hairpin!" She shouted in alarm, seeing that one of the flower-themed hairpins she constantly wore religiously except for when she was sleeping had disappeared from her head. A quick feel to her spiritual head revealed the same missing spot on her right side. She started to desperately look around, both hoping to find her missing treasure and wondering when it got knocked off in the first place.

Ichigo and Naruto paused and looked back at her once she spoke up, Naruto being the more confused of the duo and Ichigo seeming to understand the situation better after a moment of thought.

 **"You…you still have them?"**

The demonic voice gained the attention of both male teens again as they quickly tensed and prepared to fight once more. They saw that the hollow's upper body was hunched over the edge of the second story floor, looking to have stopped his one-armed climb back into the room midway.

That's when he noticed a small glint near his position amongst the debris. It seemed that the light of the full moon found its way into the wrecked apartment and reflected off of the missing half of his sister's first and last gift from him.

He restarted his crawl, but not in the direction of the male teens. Instead he slowly made his way towards the shining object in a noticeable silence.

Neither Ichigo nor Naruto made any sudden moves, the former apparently signaling the latter to wait after coming to his own understandings of the situation. They watched as their enemy briefly paused when he got close to the hairpin and gently lowered his giant hand to the wooden surface.

It took a very careful effort, but using the tips of his black fingers he was able to pick up the flower-like accessory. He brought the object up to his face and looked at it with a deep calculative eye.

 **"I thought…I thought you threw them away…"** They all heard him whisper with a noticeably more human tone in his voice.

"Why would I ever do that?" Orihime spoke up as she walked to a spot in between Ichigo and Naruto.

 **"Hm?"** Her brother grunted.

Orihime started to walk forward with both males at her side at the ready. They were both cautious, but Naruto knew an upcoming sappy talk when he saw one.

From experience, of course.

"I wouldn't throw away a gift from someone I loved…still love so much…that wouldn't be right." She continued. "Ever since you passed I've always worn them to honor you. I may have stopped praying for you, but…when I started to talk about my friends and all the fun things that happened at school I just wanted to show you that I'm happy, and that you don't need to worry about me and could rest easy. I've made more friends recently, and have tried to get closer to those I already have…hoping to have them care about me as I do for them, to always be there for each other…just like how you watched out for the both us all those years…" She finished, eyes full of wavering unshed tears and a sad smile on her pretty face.

The eldest Inoue stayed silent and glanced at the lone hairpin again, his mind going all over the place before his masked face started to disintegrate into quickly fading black shards. What came to the view of the trio was the Inoue's face, his true face, without any lingering anger left on his visage.

"I never- no…I always knew what you were trying to do…I just didn't want you to completely move on from me...I was blind…I wanted you all to myself…" The brother whispered to himself.

"Obviously that's where you screwed up." Ichigo bluntly replied. "Inoue is Inoue. She isn't a trophy that belongs to a single person."

"What he said." Naruto sounded and gestured to Ichigo from his position, throwing them all off since it was the first time he spoke.

He noticed their silent glances. "What?" He questioned.

The now calm hollow focused on the blonde. "You're him…Naruto, right?"

The shinobi blinked in surprise and quickly nodded. "Yeah…how did you…?" Naruto left the question hang in the air.

"Orihime…she talked about you today…a new friend…your physical description isn't exactly hard to recognize, same as Kurosaki in that regard…"

The blonde blinked again. "Oh." He quietly replied. Looking to the other two he saw Ichigo shrug with his usual facial expression and Orihime's near constant smile beginning to tug at her cheeks.

They all turned to see Orihime's brother go silent once again and looked to be staring into space for a moment. It was after his silent contemplation that lead him to locking his sight onto Ichigo and narrowing his eyes.

For a second Ichigo and the others thought he was going to start to fight again, but the way he approached them with a certain look in his determined eyes spoke of another, non-threatening goal.

Without anything blocking his path the hollow grabbed the Shinigami's bare blade with his remaining hand. A few drops of blood starting to leak down the metal, but was otherwise ignored when they all noticed him point the blade at himself, right at the most vulnerable spot of any hollow.

Orihime watched as the tip was approaching her brother's forehead. "Onii-chan…" She whispered.

Her voice seemed to knock the other two out of their trance. "Wait, you don't have to-!" Ichigo started.

"Ichigo!" A feminine voice shouted from behind.

They all turned to see Rukia, fully decked out in yellow pajamas with some noticeable blotches of dirt on her face and person, along with a small reassuring grin.

"Cutting them with a zanpakuto isn't killing him. It'll wash away his sins and send him off to Soul Society to be at peace. Don't worry, this is the job of all Shinigami and the reason we exist." She calmly explained.

 _'Again with this Shinigami stuff…'_ Naruto dwelled on briefly.

"That's why I have to disappear before I lose myself again." The older Inoue cut in, a clear but melancholy understanding held within his mature eyes.

Ichigo quickly understood the situation himself while nodding and letting his former opponent do what must done with his blade.

Naruto merely watched on with a sympathetic gaze while absorbing all the information he could.

Orihime's eyes started to gather tears at the thought of knowing these were the last moments her brother would have before officially moving on.

"Ichigo….Naruto…" The male Inoue stated, catching both of their attention. "Please watch over her." He requested with a serious gaze.

It might be weird to ask of such a thing from these two, one he previously despised and the other he barely knew at all, but he knew that with the abilities that they held they could protect his little sister from the world he had become privy to.

She might be just as safe being as far away from them as possible with how he was sure they would attract the wrong kind of attention, but that would probably be asking too much with his sister already caring about one and starting a friendship with the other.

No words escaped either male, but after a moment they both nodded, one with a serious glare and the other with the makings of a carefree grin.

"Wait!" Orihime suddenly shouted as she ran in close to her sibling. She stopped when she was a mere few feet away and gazed upward to meet his curious expression. "I've always wanted to say what I couldn't that night before you left."

With as much affection as she could muster she gave her brother a wide smile, and as a tear escaped her eye said, "See ya later…Sora-nii."

Sora's eyes widened ever so slightly before he looked lovingly down at his precious sister. "Yeah…see ya later…I hope we meet again someday…"

And with the final word escaping his lips he stabbed himself with the blade. With his willingness to pass on his body immediately started to disintegrate into a bunch of illuminated slivers. Every single part of his transformed figure slowly began to disappear, and with the moonlight shining behind him the pieces of his soul glittered in a white glow as they floated off into the night sky to join the stars.

His smile was the last part of him that they beheld as the sword clanked to the floor in a prolonged echo.

Everyone was silent as they all absorbed what just happened. Orihime herself slowly walked to where her brother once was and took the time to gaze up into the sky. A few more tears started to trail down her cheeks, but that didn't stop her from quietly giving out once last prayer for her brother's well-being.

While they were all giving the remaining Inoue a moment to herself Naruto took that time to lean in close to the others.

"Hey, Ichigo?" He whispered over Rukia's head.

"Yeah?" He whispered back.

"What the hell, man?" He questioned in an exasperated tone while gesturing to everything around them with a slow turn of his head and weary eyes.

Ichigo matched his look, only with more hints of annoyance and disbelied. "What the hell, _me_? What the hell, _you_?!" He half shouted and whispered back. "What was all that?! Jumping in here like some lunatic and magically making some knives appear out of nothing?!"

They both glanced to the kunai still held within the blonde's grip before Naruto quickly sealed them back up.

"Yes, that! What the hell is that?!" He continued while frantically pointing Naruto's hands, annoying Rukia a bit since his appendage was in front of her face.

Naruto fired back. "Don't act like I'm the only weird one! What's with your emo bathrobe of death and that overcompensating sword?!" He retorted while getting in the bright-haired teen's face.

"It's not a bathrobe, you blonde fishcake!"

"It's maelstrom, ya fricken' dingleberry!"

"It's strawberry- I mean to protect one!"

"Sounds the same to me, dattebayo!"

"Again, what the hell does that even mean?!"

In their whispered argument of name meanings they failed to notice that Rukia walked to the side of the room very sneakily while Orihime was making her way towards her two saviors.

"Kurosaki-kun, Uzumaki-kun, what are you talking about?" She asked innocently with a tilt of her head.

Both males abruptly stopped their riveting conversation and muttered, "Nothing."

Orihime only blinked at them in slight confusion before her eyes quickly lit up. "Anyway, how were you both able to do all that fighting and magic stuff?! It was amazing! I have so many quest-!"

She couldn't continue on since in her excitement she failed to notice Rukia ambush her from behind and hold a small device up to her face. A poof of smoke suddenly obscured her vision and she felt herself go off into her own silly unconscious world as she fell to ground.

The other two looked flabbergasted at such an action and didn't know what to make of the cartoonish bird head on the end of the wriggling spring that was ejected with the smoke.

"What did you do, Rukia?!" Ichigo shouted.

"Hm? Oh, I used the kikanshinki (Account-Replacing Spirit Device)." She replied with nary a worry, quickly walking towards Tatsuki's position at the other side of the room.

"Kikanshinki?" Naruto muttered as he approached Orihime's spritual body to make sure she wasn't harmed in any physically obvious way.

"It knocks out whoever it's used on so they forget whatever they saw and gain a new memory at random in its place. The new memory is limited by the person's imagination and what they would realistically believe." Rukia explained, letting out a small grunt of exertion every now and then while dragging Tatsuki and Orihime's physical body next to the chained soul.

"That isn't going to give Orihime brain damage, is it?" Ichigo asked as he looked on skeptically.

Rukia's hands started to glow while she held her palms above the tomboy's easily manageable wounds. "Unlikely. As far as I know the kikanshinki has a ninety-nine point nine success rate." She said while finishing Tatsuki's healing and proceeded to use the memory device on her as well.

"And the other point one percent?" Naruto questioned while watching this entire process.

Rukia's face flinched for the briefest moment of memory's past before getting back to work. "Don't worry about it." She nonchalantly replied.

Naruto stared at the short girl as she continued to clean the blood for a moment until he suddenly shook his head vehemently and quickly turned back to the other male. "Wait, never mind that! Ichigo, please explain all this crap that happened before I lose my mind!"

Ichigo quickly joined Naruto in their previous tone.

"Hold it! I got my own questions too, damn it!" He yelled exasperatedly.

"I'm more in the dark than you, so I think my questions are more important! Like why did this happen?! How many of those monsters are out there?! Why are you fighting said monsters?! Why is-?!" Naruto turned towards the weakened Shinigami, "Rukia, right?" He asked bluntly.

She nodded while dusting off herself after she somehow managed to make Orihime whole again without them looking.

The blonde looked back at Ichigo. "-Why is Rukia wearing Yuzu's pajamas?! Why is she even here and how was she doing that hand glowy healing crap?! Do these freaks all have some sort of white masks like the first one earlier in the-?!"

"So you _did_ see a hollow before!" Ichigo shouted while pointing his finger accusingly at the blonde. "Why didn't you tell me?! Are you planning something?!"

The Uzumaki trudged on. "Don't turn this back on me! I asked first! In fact, why didn't _you_ tell me anything about these hollow things if you knew I would have any chance at all seeing them?!"

"You were already freaked out about the paranormal, so he didn't see it as important and to also keep your mind peaceful and oblivious. We also didn't know if you even attracted them in the first place considering you just started seeing spirits. Of course that was before knowing you could defend yourself in such a powerful manner." Rukia blandly added from the side.

Naruto glanced at her and then looked back at Ichigo with a hint of betrayal in his eyes. "I told you that in confidence, man!"

Ichigo rolled his eyes before continuing his banter with the hyperactive ninja. With both in their own hysterics they didn't notice Rukia tiptoeing barefoot up from behind Naruto with the kikanshinki in hand and tongue poking out in concentration.

It was right before the argument was going to turn physical that Rukia jumped to ambush the blonde like she did to Orihime, but unlike before this target was privy to such attacks. What was originally going to be Rukia activating the device from her position on his upper back ended up with the shinobi's grip quickly grasping the wrist that held the Shinigami's tool as he lifted the girl in the air with full extension of his arm. The kikanshinki was still triggered, but it was done after being caught and sent off a puff of smoke above her and Naruto's head harmlessly.

Naruto continued to hold the girl in the air until he brought her to his eye level. "Did you just try to mind-wipe me?" He asked with annoyance and a twitch on his brow.

She met his stare with her own blank one. "Perhaps." She replied.

"Why did you do that, Rukia?" Ichigo asked as he too stared at her pitiful form.

She did her best to shrug from her dangling psition. "I figured we'd be able to properly question him under better circumstances in the future, preferably with us well ahead of him in information." She replied.

Naruto flicked her on the forehead. "That's just rude, so I'll just take this until everything is figured out and I know my brain won't be raped." He chastised before grabbing the kikanshinki from her and pocketing it. He then set her down back on the ground and turned back to Ichigo. "Anyway, before we get right into the root of all this bullcrap I'd like to clarify one last thing."

"And that is?" Ichigo retorted.

"We're in a heavily populated area, aren't we?" Naruto questioned.

Both Ichigo and Rukia, who was stretching her agitated arm, nodded.

"So how the hell hasn't anyone noticed all of _this_ going on?" The blonde continued while opening his arms and gesturing to the entire wrecked room.

Both Shinigami blinked.

That…was a good question, actually…

Then the sirens started to ring in the distance.

All three of them jerked at the echoing sound, Ichigo because he knew the source, and Rukia along with Naruto because of instant curiosity.

"We'll continue this later, but we got to get out of here!" Ichigo shouted until he realized something and calmed down. "Oh wait, they can't see me so I don't have to worry about the police." He muttered.

"Police?" Rukia and Naruto whispered until the former's eyes widened. "But they can still see me and I don't have the ability to get that far away in time!" Rukia exclaimed, breaking her usually calm demeanor.

Naruto smirked despite the window of escaping without being seen escaping. "Heh, I can disappear and get away no problem." He said and earned a glare from the short girl.

Ichigo shook his head. "Whatever. Naruto, how did you get up here in the first place anyway?"

"Jumping from roof to roof." The blonde simply replied.

Ichigo filed more questions for later mentally before saying, "Then you carry Rukia back to my house since I already brought her here." He then looked at the unconscious females before Naruto could say anything. "What about them?"

Naruto and Rukia looked the sleeping duo as well with the former sending a questioning look to the original Shinigami.

"Any damage done to them physically has been dealt with. Just let the kikanshinki work its magic; trust me." She then quickly jumped onto Naruto's back and forced him to uncomfortably catch her in a piggyback. "Now let's get going before anyone sees us!"

Ichigo and Naruto both looked unsure until the blonde righted Rukia on his back properly and looked at Ichigo. "Race ya." He said before leaping from one of the holes in the room and onto the nearest rooftop, an unprepared Rukia letting out a short yelp of surprise.

Ichigo watched with wide eyes until he mentally shook it off and followed his example.

 _'Just who or what the hell are you, Naruto?'_ He thought after the first jump.

Unbeknownst to the entire group a black cat was sitting on the top of a nearby wooden fence, having seen the entire event go down. The feline seemed to smirk before sauntering off into the night.

* * *

(Kurosaki Residence - A Short Time Later)

"So?" Ichigo probed, him being back inside his freshly healed body as he sat on his bed with Rukia standing next to him. His room was still a little roughed up, but it was nothing they couldn't handle in a short time.

"So…?" Naruto replied back from his cross-legged position on his futon against the wall.

Ichigo grunted in annoyance. "Let's just cut the crap. How were you able to fight like that and everything else you did like appearing out of thin air back at Orihime's and walking up the wall to go through the window when you got here? " He asked while pointing a thumb to the window behind him.

"How about instead you tell me how you were separated from your body that was laying on its face like it got drunk off its ass?" Naruto calmly retorted.

Rukia rolled her eyes and stood between them. "Will you two stop acting like children and just talk like civilized adults already?"

"Hey, I just feel as the one more confused here I should get some answers first." Naruto stated while crossing his arms in defiance.

"More like you're the unknown factor in all of this, so you're the one that needs to start coughing up some information of your own." Ichigo fired back with a pointed look at the blonde.

Rukia sighed heavily and crossed her own arms. "Obviously someone has to break the ice and it might as well be us."

Ichigo looked at her. "Weren't you the one that said this all had to be covert and handled carfeully?"

"Yes, but sometimes exceptions have to be made. Even if he isn't a Shinigami he isn't anything else I would immediately deem a threat." She turned to look Naruto in the eye. "And I assume you don't have any bad intentions, right?"

Naruto shook his head. "Nope, I'm not a dick. And besides, in case ya didn't know, I take my promises _very_ seriously and I pinky promised Yuzu I wasn't some sort of bad guy."

In his head Kurama made a gagging sound before going back to resting its head on its arms, but was ultimately ignored.

Rukia nodded. "Alright then."

The conversation proceeded on with Rukia explaining the basic ins and outs of the Shinigami and how Ichigo was tied to the role, complete with bunny-themed drawings for visual assistance. Funnily enough both teens were introduced to the world of hollows in the same night, each also having their first kill of such a creature. Naruto also learned that whole truck crashing into the house fiasco was a result of the kikanshinki being used on the rest of the Kurosaki family. Not much else was concluded in Rukia's explanation, even with some side commentary from Ichigo included every now and then. The only other thing of any real interest was Ichigo's second fight that helped him come to terms with his substitution and what really went down with Orihime's familial struggle.

"Wait, wait, back up." Naruto stated once their summary of recent events ended.

"What, do I need to go over something with more detail?" Rukia asked.

"No, I pretty much got it. Evil ghost monsters, robed sword people, spirit power, blah, blah, blah and all that jazz. Did you mention something about being in this room's closet since this hollow crap started for us?" Naruto asked while pointing to the closet filled with Ichigo's clothes and other menial possessions.

"That's correct." She responded.

"And how often were you in there?" Naruto asked nervously, still trying to process how he didn't notice her in the first place.

Rukia hummed in thought. "I can't say for sure, but pretty often. I have to be near Ichigo as much as I can just in case I get an alert for a hollow arrival. I was still able to keep hidden when needed, though."

"I see…and have you seen anything, well, private since hiding out in there? Like when we got dressed and stuff?"

Ichigo's face grew a little uneasy as well since he just found out she was in his closet before being attacked by the hollowfied Sora.

Rukia stayed silent for a moment and kept her face bare of any outstanding emotions. "I will neither confirm nor deny anything." She said.

"I feel a little violated…" Naruto muttered while giving himself a minor hug as if trying to hide his innocence.

 _ **"** **Most action you've ever gotten."**_ The fox commented.

Naruto would've replied back, but Ichigo spoke up again.

"Despite that…little concerning detail, aren't you freaked out about the whole spiritual aspect of this entire thing?" He asked.

Naruto shrugged. "I can hit them, so it's all good."

"Uh-huh…well, I believe now is the time for you to give us some answers." Ichigo said while trying to get serious again.

"Um, alright, let's see…" Naruto muttered as he went into thought.

 _ **"** **If you still want to be all secretive you still have that stupid little memory machine in your pocket. Could've used genjutsu, but of course we both know that isn't exactly in your repertoire."**_

" _Nah, it isn't a big deal to tell them about everything. Besides, you're partly to blame why I can't even use genjutsu."_ Naruto mentally replied.

 _ **"** **Doesn't matter to me either way. In my view, life from here on out is our freebee, so do whatever the hell you want, but make it entertaining. Treat this world like a sandbox and either take it over, become some street urchin with no future, or whatever in-between. Oh, and I'm pretty sure the power you gain from me is well worth more than that stupid shinobi art. Why make illusions when you can just blow everything up?"**_

 _"Awesome advice as always, fuzzy-wuzzy…"_ Naruto retorted and earned a small growl in return before deciding to get the rest of the conversation with the other two over with.

He looked at the both of them with the utmost seriousness as he said, "I'm a dimension travelling ninja, also called shinobi, that comes from a world filled with people like me that fight for their own respective villages in various countries called the Elemental Nations. My village, like I said before, is Konohagakure and one of the most powerful shinobi villages around. Our countries have a pretty big history of wars for whatever reason—I wasn't that good in history class—but we mostly just take jobs for various causes such as escorting clients, deliveries, combat, assassination, etc. I wasn't necessarily given the bloodiest kinds of missions considering I was focused on a bunch of other stuff—a _lot_ of other stuff—and was only involved in the craziest crap when trouble happened to find me which, quite often, happened and any poor bastards tagging along had to suffer too. One of the worst was chasing a cat called Tora. Either of you ever had to chase a demon feline that just didn't want to be caught and had a fetish for slashing the absolute shit out of your face? Never mind, that's not important. What was I talking about?"

He took in another breath.

"Anyway, unlike most, I had a really interesting upbringing—I'll go into more detail some other time—but some certain aspects of my life required me to get prepared for a group consisting of the most dangerous shinobi in the world that were after the nine tailed beasts, ancient masses of sentient chakra that were important for some sort of doomsday weapon that they had in mind. One of these beasts, the strongest in terms of tail count, is a giant fox that was sealed within me at birth; I'll show you the seal later. The fox can be an ass sometimes, but old, angry and fuzzy and I are a kickass team that helped save the world in the fourth great war, like, a week ago from the tyranny of someone pretty much considered a god that appeared _after_ the other guy that was considered a god who showed up _after_ the first guy that was considered a god, mostly self-titled from what I understand, but he was no joke with those purple eyes of death. The first guy turned out to be alright after I gave him a little pep talk after he destroyed my village and killed nearly everyone I loved, but he ended up reviving everyone so I guess it's cool. Still sucked, though. Back to the last god-like person that I had to face, she's actually the reason I'm even here because of her abilities to pull dimensions out of her ass like it was nothing and had the ultimate goal of taking all the chakra and putting everyone in the world into an imaginary dream world forever. I'm not exactly sure how I turned up here, but she still ended up getting beat by myself and my dick of a friend-not friend-turned traitor-asshole—who I still want to kick the shit out of for everything he's done, including sticking a lightning-covered fist through my chest a few years ago—because of a sudden boost of power from a _nother_ guy considered a god, but in his case he was good to begin with even with those weird-looking horns sticking out of his old head. Wonder what everyone else is doing now? Hope whatever it is, it's fun and not full of death like recently."

Another breath.

"I can also confidently say I have the capability of using attacks that would most likely destroy this city without much trouble. Oh, and my favorite color is orange since I don't believe I've mentioned that before. Any questions?"

Silence.

If Naruto had been paying closer attention he would've heard Kurama hit its head in a combination of annoyance and disbelief.

 _ **"** **Worst. Storyteller. Ever."**_

Ichigo and Rukia didn't have an immediate reaction. That slowly morphed into them opening and closing their mouths trying to come up with some sort of any response, but anything coherent was lost on their tongues.

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…"

"W-what?" Rukia eventually spoke out.

Naruto crossed his arms and huffed to himself. "Hey, it's not like I only had to deal with a small amount of information and whatever happened in the span of a week. I was covering a hefty chunk of my life there, dattebayo!"

"But…what…chakra? Dattebayo? And ninjas? Seriously? And what about the tailed- you know what, screw this, I'm going to sleep and leaving this crap to future me." Ichigo sputtered before turning and plopping himself facedown onto his bed. Sleep found him easily a few seconds later after all the adrenaline finally wore off.

Naruto and Rukia looked at the teen drifting off into dreamland. "Well, that was easy." Naruto stated.

Rukia turned to him and raised a brow with a stern look in her eye. "You're not off the hook. We'll talk more tomorrow to clarify all of this, but for now it's safe to say you're not an enemy."

"But if I was?" Naruto asked with a lazy squint.

"Then you'd have a lot of powerful enemies coming after you, but like I said there's nothing extreme to worry about for now."

"Eh, I'm used to it. And like I said, trouble kinda finds me more often than not. It could've started to look up back at my home, but this is a new playing field and is starting to fully absorb my awesomeness. Also, since I've known each of you at least an hour you're probably both coming along for the ride." He replied as if talking about the weather, his head being held up by the palm of his hand as his arm rested on his knee.

After a moment, Rukia shrugged. "We'll cross that bridge when we get to it." She then started to make her way to the small enclosure of extra blankets and pillows that was Ichigo's closet to rest for the night as well. That was until she sensed something cruising towards her back.

With ease she turned and caught the kikanshinki with a single hand before glancing to the blonde with subtle curiosity and intrigue, having almost forgotten about the device herself.

"No mind rape. Ol' furball would probably prevent it anyway." He said with a semi-stern expression while patting his abdomen. She wasn't sure what he meant exactly but nodded anyway. "G'night then, Rukia-chan!" He offered a little jovially.

"Night." She replied before the closet door fully closed shut.

Naruto took a second to himself to think about what tomorrow would bring until he decided to lay down fully on the futon in order to sleep. Just before he committed to the act a thought caught up with him, making him frown in annoyance as he scoffed and turned onto his side to face the wall.

"I thought I explained it just fine…"

* * *

(Karakura High School Rooftoop - Lunch Period)

"So…this chakra stuff is like reiryoku, but it involves both spiritual and physical power?" Ichigo asked while taking out a sandwich from the bento Yuzu prepared. He and Rukia were still trying to clarify what the hell exactly made the blonde shinobi tic and decided to kick it off with asking about his own source of power.

"Pretty much. Don't know how the physical aspect changes anything, though. Maybe that makes me cooler than you Shinigami folk by default." Naruto replied cheekily at the usually stone-faced Ichigo and occupied Rukia who was discovering the wonders of a juice box.

Ichigo ignored the jab and focused more on his food. "I wouldn't know. Only been one for a week, remember?"

"Don't underestimate us Shinigami, Naruto." Rukia stated half distracted while looking intently at the juice container. "There are plenty of us that have amazing skills, skills that have only been hardened and refined with each passing century."

"Then don't underestimate my own awesomeness, Rukia-chan. I'm considered a kid here and I already saved my world from someone stronger than some of the greatest shinobi, and that was power accumulated over a few years, not centuries that you old farts need." Naruto shot back playfully.

Rukia managed a small glare in his direction, but it was nothing too serious from what he saw. "Then we ought to put that to the test someday." She said even if that probably wasn't the best thing to test out. If Naruto really was someone as strong as he said then he'd attract all the wrong attention. That attention if garnered sooner rather than later with Ichigo and herself in the vicinity would spell trouble for everyone, mostly her and Naruto if the Shinigami law and Research and Development had anything to say about it, given the right motives of course. Any consequences could also end with something not a big deal overall, but rolling the dice with the people she was involved with wasn't exactly a good thing.

"I also remember you mentioning you had help with that whole world saving thing." She continued.

"Maybe, but that doesn't change that I can kick ass!"

 _ **"** **I'm more interested in that you know what 'accumulated' even means."**_

" _Hey, I can know stuff too, you ass!"_

 _ **"** **Really?"**_ The fox replied with obvious doubt.

" _Yes, really! I…also might've just seen that on Isshin's 'word of the day' calendar, but whatever! Screw you!"_

Rukia mentally waved him off. "Speaking of fighting, that brings forth a dilemma."

"And that is?" Ichigo replied.

The girl pointed to the blonde as he started to dig into his own Yuzu approved meal. "Naruto here can fight and kill hollows effectively from what we've seen and what he told us about his first encounter with one. If he kills them like he did then the spirit won't pass on into Soul Society and find peace. They'll be bound here and add an imbalance of souls being regulated by Shinigami."

Naruto stopped mid-chew into a rice ball. "While I have absolutely no idea what you mean, I'm guessing that isn't a good thing?" He muttered with a couple a crumbs falling off his chin.

"While it isn't the ideal outcome it is very common with the most difficult of hollows and their devouring of souls that haven't been properly exorcised, so it isn't something to panic over. You were defending yourself and that's okay, but now we have to be prepared and make every soul count."

"Prepared how?" Naruto retorted.

"If you're going to be dragged into fighting hollows, which is likely considering you'll attract them fairly easy like Ichigo, then you either have to stall until Ichigo can do a Shinigami's job or be with us in the first place to either lend aid or, once again, let Ichigo do his thing. If the setting and situation prove to be too dire and there isn't reinforcement then go wild and take care of it if you can."

The other teen in question sighed. "Just more work…" He said until he thought of something. "Wait, how can Naruto fight if he's visible to the living? Wouldn't that make it harder to be sneaky about all this?"

"We'll always have the kikanshinki for any such breach of secrecy, but I idly remember you saying he appeared from nothing last night." Rukia said.

"Oh yeah." Ichigo turned to Naruto. "What was that?"

Naruto smiled triumphantly. "An awesome jutsu that makes me completely transparent whenever I want! It also might've been created with…less than innocent intentions originally by its creator, but it's still great for everything stealthy, even if I'm fighting with it activated." He said with pride.

"There's our answer." Rukia concluded.

"Jutsu?" Ichigo asked.

This time Naruto sighed. "We really need to get on the same page soon."

"Hey, guys." A voice announced.

They all turned to see Mizuiro approach them with his lunch in hand.

"Yo." Naruto replied with a wave.

"Oh, and Kuchiki-san is here as well. You're making friends fast, Ichigo." Mizuiro commented while taking a seat next to Naruto.

Without much emotion in his voice Ichigo said, "I'm just too lovable, I guess."

"Yep, a real ray of sunshine." Naruto commented blandly before sipping some water.

A new but familiar voice joined in next.

"Can I join you guys as well- oh, if it isn't the beautiful new transfer student, Kuchiki-san! What brings you to this place of men?!" Keigo yelled in excitement.

"She's hanging out with Naruto and Ichigo. They're apparently getting close really fast." Mizuiro said while pointing the male duo.

"Hm?" Ichigo and Naruto sounded while offering the black-haired boy a curious glance.

"Oh ho! Is this the beginning of a love triangle?! A formidable duel of men for the heart of the newcomer?!" Keigo then rushed and slid on his knees to get to Naruto and Ichigo's eye level. He got in close while a steady stream of tears flowed out from each closed eye without much trouble. "I believe in both of you!" He whispered while giving two thumbs up.

Rukia noticed none of this as she finally discovered the straw on the juice box and became enthralled.

"Uh, thank you?" Naruto let out unsurely.

"Just ignore him." Ichigo added as he pushed his spontaneous friend out of his personal space.

"So cold, Ichigo!" Keigo woefully exclaimed, but recovered quickly as he got his own lunch started.

Smalltalk ensued between the teens plus one much older Shinigami. Nothing too important came up except for whatever assignments were due and interesting rumors came up. One such interesting event was brought out into the open when they all heard Orihime's voice ring out from the other side of the roof where she was enjoying the break period with her female friends. All of them were seated on a large blanket spread out with their food surrounding them.

"But it's true!" She yelled.

"Really? A sumo wrestler blasted himself in and out of different walls in your room with a bazooka?" Mahana inquired with no instance of belief in her voice.

"At least think up something more realistic than that." Ryo added.

Chizuro took her opportunity to wrap an arm around the pleading Inoue. "I happen to enjoy that beautiful imagination of yours, hime!"

"I'm telling you it did happen! Tatsuki-chan was there too! That's what happened, right, Tatsuki-chan?!"

The tomboy seemed hesitant, but quickly relented with a nod. "Um…yeah."

"Tatsuki too? So this really happened?" Michiru said in awe.

Their conversation only escalated from there and made the two Shinigami and single ninja share knowing glances with each other.

"First a truck through Ichigo's place and now a sumo wrestler through Orihime's. I wonder who's next?" Keigo questioned between bites.

"What if it's you?" Mizuiro asked.

Keigo hummed in thought before a wide smile emerged on his face. "If my wall gets knocked down then I hope it's by a hoard of women desperately looking for affections from one Asano Keigo!" He exclaimed.

"Emphasis on 'desperately.'" Ichigo said carelessly, making Naruto smirk and Keigo become depressed with Mizuiro patting his back without much sympathy.

Heavy steps were heard.

They gave their attention to the source and it turned out to be Chad who was holding something hidden over his shoulder. They would've greeted him like normal, but there was a few obvious distractions on his person.

"What happened to you?" Ichigo questioned, gesturing to the bandages on his head, face and hands.

Chad started to point at his injuries. "My head was from yesterday. A steel beam fell on me." He said casually.

"Steel beam?!" Keigo and Mizuiro shouted in unison.

Ichigo and Naruto looked at the tall young man in some shock.

Rukia was occupied with reading the juice's nutrition facts.

The Latino boy continued. "The other stuff was from when I went to buy some bread."

That seemed like it would lead to a more innocent incident.

"And I got hit by a motorcycle."

Well then.

"What the hell have you been doing?!" Ichigo shouted in disbelief.

Chad indulged his friends in the rest of the information. "The guy on the motorcycle was hurt pretty bad, so I carried him to the hospital."

 _'That's why he was late…'_ The others thought.

The dark-skinned boy then held out the object behind his back to set down on the ground.

"Chad?" Ichigo asked.

The Latino grunted questionably.

"Where did you get a cockatiel?"

Indeed there was a white cockatiel sitting peacefully within the cage Chad brought.

"A guy…-" Chad started, but ended going silent. He let the sentence linger a little longer than what seemed necessary and left the others becoming more interesting. "-Gave him to me."

A little lackluster, but it did the job in his opinion.

"Don't just be lazy and cut the answer short! That's a bad habit!" Asano yelled.

"Hello, my name is Shibata Yuichi. What are your names?" The bird spoke in a high-pitched voice.

Everyone but Chad looked on in shock.

Naruto leaned in to whisper next to Ichigo's ear. "Do animals talk here?"

"Not the last time I checked…"

"Oh, that's so awesome!" Keigo broke the silence before kneeling next to the bird. "Can you say my name?! It's Asano. Say it with me. _Asano_."

Everybody minus Ichigo, Naruto, and Rukia gathered around to try and interact with the seemingly overly intelligent animal. The commotion even attracted the girls to walk over and see what was going on.

"It's nothing harmful." Rukia commented out of earshot of the others except the brightly haired males next to her.

The duo looked at her curiously.

She continued. "Something is inhabiting the bird, but it isn't evil. Looks to be nothing more than a lonely spirit. It has the potential to become a hollow, so it's best that we send it to the afterlife tonight."

"And I'm guessing you don't need me along to help and fight the shit out of it or something, right?" Naruto asked.

Rukia shook her head. "No, this is a simple one. No fighting required."

Naruto nodded and patted Ichigo on the shoulder. "Looks like you're losing sleep, bud."

Ichigo grunted in minor displeasure. "Great…"

"Don't complain about your duty." Rukia said offhandedly while returning back to figuring out where to poke the straw in the juice box.

Naruto, very discreetly and silently, took the items from her hands and stuck the straw through its intended position at the top. He quickly handed it back and she gave out a nearly unnoticeable sound of awe before thanking him and taking a sip.

"So, ninja and Shinigami comparison and possessed birds aside, what class do we have next?" Naruto asked Ichigo.

"Math."

"Oh, okay. Wait, wasn't there homework?"

Ichigo nodded.

"Shit…"Naruto muttered.

"Why do you even care?" Ichigo replied.

Naruto sighed. "Yuzu threatened to take meals away if I didn't try in school and your old man has me by the balls with the phone contract."

"Ah, did she also say she would be very disappointed in you?"

The blonde nodded.

"Been there, so don't screw up."

Having someone so loving and innocent look at you in displeasure always hurt.

Rukia then caught their attention with a pleased hum.

"This juice is good…"

* * *

(Unagiya Shop – After School)

"So how's school been treating you?" Ikumi asked while hanging up a new banner over her shop's front door.

Naruto watched her as he stood next to the fairly large stepstool she was using and stopped sweeping the sidewalk of dirt and other small debris.

"It's okay I guess. I learned that this guy named Hitler was a major dick and that the Pythagorean Theorem will serve me no purpose in my life." He said before he started up his sweeping again.

"Sounds about right." She muttered while adjusting the latest addition to her business.

"Why did you even get that thing anyway?" Naruto asked as he caught view of the banner in its full glory.

The main color was white with 'Unagiya' largely spelled out in black in the middle and leaned towards the bottom. The font wasn't overly styled and remained quite simple, but it served its purpose. The eel logo that was usually solely shown off on her shirt was proudly placed symmetrically above her surname while the slogan was instead under it. At the very bottom was her usual hours and means of contact.

"Because I need to gain some more clientele. I've had the same regulars for years that I mostly got from friends spreading the word and I'm not really getting anywhere at the speed that I want. There's always the regular bills, but I need to start doing renovations, replace all of the old equipment, and start a college fund for Kaoru-chan. And if this business grows enough at some point, I'm probably going to need better ways of advertising, hire more staff and maybe even make a website or something."

"Thinking big, aren't ya?"

"It's better to do that than remain complacent with mediocrity or what simply isn't your best." She stated while leaning away to see if the banner was balanced.

"You should sew that on a pillow." Naruto said while finishing the last of his sweeping and leaned the large broom against the wall.

"Or on a t-shirt and sell 'em. By the way, I need to get you your own Unagiya shirt like an official employee. Anything you want suited to your tastes?"

"Orange." He replied simply.

"Alright then. Anyway, a new order just came in earlier and can only be completed today. I don't want to lose the money so head inside and get on it. While you're in there can you grab me some-"

Her words were cut short when a loud and brief metal crunch sounded out from the stepstool. It was revealed to be the highest step she was leaning on as she admired her handiwork as it cleanly snapped in half from years of rust. She suddenly started to fall back in a path that would mean the point of impact onto the cement would be the back of her head.

Like she said, old equipment.

She could only let out a surprised yelp while having just enough thought to realize the landing was going to hurt.

Weirdly enough, the pain never arrived. Her eyes opened to meet blue ones as she realized that Naruto managed to catch her in a bridal carry.

' _Damn, he's fast.'_ She thought impressively.

She was about to thank him, but he decided to quickly make light of the situation and create his own entertainment.

"We both knew you would end up in my arms eventually, Ikumi-chan." He said with the tone of a cheesy smooth talker and his eyes half lidded. He was obviously joking and letting out some of the impression Jiraiya left on him, but that just reminded Ikumi of something else.

She responded by roughly grabbing his cheek and pulled with a strong grip. "Don't start that crap again like you did yesterday with Kaoru! This isn't some cheap, unrealistic romance scene! You're lucky I didn't throw a potted plant at the back of your head!"

"Ow, ow, ow, _ow_! Alright, alright, quit with the pulling!" He exclaimed in pain, immediately finding relief when she obliged.

Sadly, he wasn't done.

"Damn, you'd think someone whose youth is rapidly depleting would appreciate a little attent- fuckin' _ow_!"

Her grip grabbed back on with more vice.

"What was that?" She demanded with an edge to her voice.

"I-I mean, anyway would be honored to be with such a young and lovely women such as yourself. Gah! You're an angel sent from the heavens down to grace us with your presence! Now would you let go, you crazy- _ow_! Okay! No one is worthy of your beauty and we men are just dirt on the bottom of your boot! We should all worship the ground you walk and be glad for whatever attention is given to us- c'mon, your nail is digging into the skin!"

She kept her stern eyes on his own wincing orbs before letting go again, positive he got the message.

"Now that that's done, thank you for catching me. Now be a good golden goose and get started on that job." She said with a smug smile, having referred to him as such yesterday while herself nor him really caring about the position they were still in.

"Yeah, yeah, love you too." He replied, hoping to rub his damaged cheek after he let her down.

That had to be put off for a quick moment as they both heard a quiet squelch near them.

They both looked to the side and saw Kaoru standing slack-jawed, his eyes frozen in shock, and his forgotten ice cream cone splattered on the unforgiving ground next to him.

He had just gotten back from hanging out with a few friends from school at the local park and was having what so far had been a great day. They played games like children tended to do, laughing merrily with each other and forgetting whatever small troubles were on their small shoulders. In their moment of youthful freedom, nothing else mattered.

Homework didn't matter.

Chores didn't matter.

Staying quiet didn't matter.

And any pesky men who were after his mother didn't matter.

Of course that all shattered shortly after he decided to pick up a treat on his way home when he turned around the corner to the front of his home.

Right there, clear as day, was his mother being held quite closely within the arms of her new employee.

What was his name again? Whatever, that wasn't important. What was important was that he had his dirty palms on his mother's body!

That wasn't all, but she actually didn't seem to mind! He swore he caught her smiling when he first saw them looking at each other, but of course he only focused on his mother's own expression of supposed happiness and didn't notice Naruto's one of agitation.

He then noticed the guy's cheek was red, slightly redder than the rest of his face that lit up from some sort of hysterical emotion.

However, his mind immediately went to a positive guess of what that emotion was when the only words he heard caught up to him.

Love you too…love you _too_?! Oh no…oh no, oh no, oh no, oh no!

A bunch of connections randomly started to form in his troubled mind.

Face red with darker spot on cheek? Him reacting to perhaps more than one kiss on said whiskered cheek.

Him saying 'too?' She just confessed and…and the feelings were recuperated.

Her being held like that? Maybe some sort honeymoon mood came upon them and they were ready to do something crazy like elope.

With Naruto and Ikumi on the other hand, all they saw was the small boy shakily pointing his finger at them with what they could assume was accompanied by an almost audible silent scream from his still open maw.

This silent stare down of confusion on both ends continued for a few more seconds until Kaoru's brain could handle no more.

Therefore he promptly fainted and fell backwards, a quiet thud echoing very briefly from the impact of his backpack that practically cushioned his entire fall.

"Kaoru!" Ikumi yelled in fright as she quickly got out of Naruto's grip and ran to her downed son before doting on him with all of her ability.

Naruto watched her shake him lightly while frantically checking every orifice of his body with a blank stare. However, it took but a short moment for him to make a response.

"Heh…" He let out in amusement.

Figuring he might as well leave the mother-son duo that faintly reminded him of Tsunami and Inari—the exceptions on their comparison being one had a strong personality to match a motherly persona while the other would probably remain an annoyance in the future—to their own devices, he decided to finally check out the job Ikumi was talking about.

He entered the business/home and went to the counter that held the weathered cardboard box with all of their job orders. Sitting next to the box was what he assumed was the new request.

He was right when he read the date and basic description of a small cleaning job, but paused instantly when he saw the name of the person that called it in.

Urahara Kisuke.

* * *

 **AN: I have cometh back, thy bitches!**

 **Seriously, though, I know it's been a while…more specifically around seven months…but I just didn't have the spark to get anything done. Along with some life-related crap riding along with that, writing wasn't really a priority. I was still around, but I was mostly just reading.**

 **That still doesn't mean I didn't like what looked to be complete inactivity on my part. I've talked to a few people every now and then that wanted to know I was still around, but those were the few that at least knew something was coming. Everyone else was kinda left in the dark, so I apologize. I don't know how active I am from here and will never really have a schedule, but at least I'm not dead!**

 **Now I hope you all enjoyed this at least a little bit. Not much happened and there wasn't any amazing action or life-changing plot directions, but I really needed to try and get back into the groove of things to see if I can still do this decently.**

 **With that in mind, my goal was that you left this with a 'Meh, it's okay,' so I'd appreciate it if you leave your thoughts in a review. Did it suck? Was it good? How's life been? Seen any good movies lately? Anyone get married, and if so, why wasn't I invited to the wedding? Express yourselves to me, lovelies!**

 **I guess that's all I could think to say.**

 **Later!**


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